THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 15 



before the institution of the facuhy of natural science, and 

 Mr. Solomon AV. Conrad was speedily chosen to fill it. The 

 appointment was probaldy the best that could have been 

 made." Mr. Conrad, who died in 1831, was, as stated by one 

 of his contemporaries, an " amiable man," and an " excellent 

 botanist," was probably the earliest to " attempt to group 

 our plants by the natural method." 



Dr. George B. Wood was elected to the chair of materia 

 medica in the University in 1835. In addition to the 

 creation of an admirable cabinet of drawings and specimens 

 illustrative of materia medica, Dr. Wood erected a spacious 

 greenhouse, in connection with a garden, and stocked them 

 with many varieties of rare tropical and exotic plants, 

 which he exhibited as illustrations of the subjects treated in 

 his lectures. In 1865 Dr. Wood endowed an auxiliary 

 faculty of medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, 

 including a chair of botany, to which his nephew, Dr. 

 Horatio C. Wood, was appointed in 1866. He lield this 

 professorship for ten years, resigning the chair of botany for 

 that of materia medica and therapeutics, made vacant 

 by the death of Prof. Joseph Carson. Dr. Joseph T. Roth- 

 rock was elected to fill the vacancy caused by the removal 

 of Dr. H. C. Wood to the chair of materia medica and 

 therapeutics, a position which he still holds. Botany, 

 under his direction, received a great stimulus, when on 

 December 4, 1881, the School of Biology, erected by the 

 liberality of Dr. Horace Jayne, was opened to students. 

 Teaching began at once, with modern biological methods. 

 Later Dr. William P. Wilson was appointed Professor of the 

 Anatomy and Physiology of Plants, in conjunction with 

 Dr. Rothrock, who devoted himself to the svstematic side 



