THE MILLARDETIAN PERIOD 81 



has nevertheless a marked phytopathologic character. 

 His most noteworthy contributions to mycology began 

 to appear about 1872 under the general title of Unter- 

 suchungen aus dem Gesammtgebiet der Mykologie 

 (See Lindau and Sydow, 1 : 196; 3 : 120). Among the 

 studies detailed in the fourteen quarto volumes which 

 have appeared up to 1908, those dealing with the smut 

 fungi are of the most value to phytopathologic science. 

 Of special importance have been the studies on com 

 smut and on blossom infection by the loose smut fungi 

 of cereals. So far as the writer is aware, Brefeld still 

 lives, and there is no data at hand for a biographic 

 sketch. A chronologic arrangement of his contributions 

 indicate clearly that he belongs to the Millardetian 

 period. His relation to plant pathology is much the 

 same as that of de Bary, a builder of one of the funda- 

 mental foundations of that science rather than of the 

 superstructure itself. 



Other European countries contributed pathogenetists 

 to this period less in number, but equally eminent with 

 those of Germany. 



One of the most interesting of the non-German patho- 

 genetists is the Danish botanist, Rostrup. He was one 

 of the most diligent, broad-minded, and successful plant 

 pathologists of this period. Because he wrote almost 

 wholly in Danish his work is little known outside of the 

 Scandinavian countries. Lind (1913 : 25) calls him the 

 "first phytopathologist of Denmark." For years a 

 teacher of mathematics and natural history in a second- 

 ary school, he trained himself in botany and mycology 

 during leisure hours, so that at the age of forty he was 

 the accepted authority on the flowering plants and fungi 

 6 



