ALEXANDER BRAUN. 1 



We announce with sorrow the death of this excellent bota- 

 nist, which took place in Berlin, on the 29th of March, after a 

 short illness. Systematic botanists of the first class are every- 

 where rare, and especially in Germany, where they have gone 

 out of fashion, all attention being turned to histology and the 

 like. In Braun's earlier days there was a goodly array of 

 systematic botanists in Germany ; at his decease there are 

 very few of mark, although signs of revival are apparent. 

 Alexander Braun was born at Ratisbon, May 10, 1805, but 

 was brought up at Carlsruhe, where his father became a trusted 

 officer in the post-office department. Fifty years ago there 

 was a knot of closely - allied students at the university of 

 Heidelberg, consisting of Braun, Carl Schimper, Agassiz, and 

 Engelmann. Two of them were transferred to our own soil ; 

 the latter is now the sole survivor. Three of them went 

 soon to Munich, where Oken, Schelling, Dollinger, and Mar- 

 tius were teaching ; but Braun, Agassiz, and Engelmann met 

 again as fellow - students at Paris in 1832. The first two 

 became allied afterwards by the marriage of Agassiz with 

 Braun's sister. About the time that Dr. Engelmann came to 

 the United States, Braun was made professor of botany and 

 zoology in the Polytechnic School of Carlsruhe. In 1846 he 

 took the chair of botany in the university of Freiburg in the 

 Breisgau ; was transferred to Giessen in 1850 ; but in the 

 spring of 1851 was called to Berlin, as the successor to Link 

 and Kunth, taking charge of the botanic garden as well as of 

 the professorship. Although he had nearly reached the age of 

 seventy-two, and felt the full weight of his years, yet he was 

 assiduously attending to his official duties when he was sud- 

 denly prostrated by acute disease of the chest, terminating 



1 American Journal of Science and Arts, 3 ser., xiii. 471. (1877.) 



