BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 53 



in Germany a man who would devote himself to chemical 

 physiology. 



"Water-culture experiments are carried on here some- 

 times. He had a table on wheels which ran on a rail to an 

 outside balcony where the jars could have access to the air 

 and light. The wheels were controlled to go very slowly by a 

 kind of crank. The hothouse was built quite on the top of 

 the house so that there was no obstruction to light and air. 

 Kny has displayed much originality in his methods of ar- 

 ranging his plants. He has injected many by mixing with the 

 soil colors that have been taken up and followed along the 

 tracks of certain vessels. In drying, the lines of these vessels 

 can be most distinctly seen. 



"He has his dried specimens between sheets of heavy paper 

 and then placed in pasteboard boxes about the dimensions 

 of a music portfolio, and four to six inches deep. His fungi 

 are classified according to morphological points, or rather 

 all morphological points which can be brought out as particu- 

 larly characteristic are noted on the covers as features. The 

 morphological characters of fungi are so strongly marked 

 that they offer great chances for this means of identification. 

 The phaenogams and even the cryptogams had their various 

 physiological or chemical characters given on the portfolios 

 when they were especially notable. I think Kny had one 

 portfolio devoted to plants especially characterized by con- 

 taining iodine. 



"The paper describing all this Kny presented to me. He 

 is still a young man of perhaps forty or more, and he was most 

 desirous of having me write him and meet his family on Sun- 

 day. I could not go, however, as I left too early to undertake 

 it. He had many specimens of Brendel's botanical models, 

 and praised them highly for the purposes they are intended 

 to meet. Kny is also the author of botanical charts which 

 I first saw in Copenhagen. They are drawn large and from 

 the specimens. ... He said it might be possible for me to 

 work with him, but I might have to be in his dark room. 

 This was indeed a funereal chamber, painted black. For- 

 merly it was used for conducting spectroscopic experiments." 



