292 Examination of the Matured Framework [Book it 



settlement of important questions, as brought to light manifold 

 phenomena, and so to speak accumulated the raw material ; von 

 Mohl on the other hand aimed from the first at penetrating as 

 deeply as possible into vegetable cell-structure, and employing 

 all the anatomical facts in framing a coherent scheme. 



We have already called attention to Hugo von Mohl's 1 

 pre-eminent position in the history both of this and also of the 

 succeeding period. Occupying himself for the most part with 

 phytotomical questions which had been already investigated, 

 he made the solid framework of cellulose the object of special 

 and searching examination, and completed the work of his 

 predecessors on this subject ; he thus laid a firm foundation 

 for the researches into the history of development afterwards 

 undertaken by Nageli. Von Mohl, like former phytotomists, 

 generally connected his researches, into structural relations 

 with physiological questions; but there was one great and 

 unmistakable difference ; he never forgot that the interpreta- 



1 Hugo Mohl (afterwards von Mohl) was born at Stuttgart in 1805, and 

 died as Professor of Botany in Tubingen in 1872. His father held an im- 

 portant civil office under the Government of Wurtemberg. Robert Mohl, 

 also in the service of the Government, Julius Mohl, the Oriental scholar, 

 and Moritz Mohl, the political economist, were his brothers. The instruc- 

 tion at the Gymnasium'at Stuttgart, which he attended for twelve years, was 

 confined to the study of the ancient languages ; but Mohl early evinced a 

 preference for natural history, physics, and mechanics, and devoted himself 

 in private to these subjects. He became a student of medicine in Tubingen 

 in 1823, and took his degree in 1828. He then spent several years in 

 Munich in intercourse with Schrank, Martius, Zuccharini and Steinheil, and 

 obtained abundant material for his researches into Palms, Ferns, and 

 Cycads. He became Professor of Physiology in Berne in 1S32, and Pro- 

 fessor of Botany in Tubingen after Schiibler's death in 1835, and there he 

 remained till his death, refusing various invitations to other spheres of 

 work. He was never married, and his somewhat solitary life of devotion to 

 his science was of the simplest and most uneventful kind. He was intimately 

 acquainted with all parts of botanical science, and possessed a thorough 

 knowledge of many other subjects ; he was in fact a true and accomplished 

 investigator of nature. A very pleasing sketch of his life from the pen of 

 De Bary is to be found in the 'Botanische Zeitung' of 1872, No. 31. 



