BOTANICAL GAZETTE 
MAY, 1895. 
The development of botany in Germany during the 
nineteenth century. 
EDUARD STRASBURGER. 
AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION BY GEORGE J. PEIRCE. 
[The following paper was published in 1893 in the second volume 
of the great and expensive work, Die Deutschen Universitdten, which 
the German Imperial Government prepared for the World’s Colum- 
bian Exposition at Chicago. Its translation and publication in the 
BotanicaL GazETTE have been authorized by Professor Strasburger 
and by the Editor of the government publication in which it appeared. 
Since it forms the only supplement, so far as I know, to Sachs’s “Hist- 
ory of Botany,” and brings the account to date, I have thought it 
would be extremely useful to American and English readers. The or- 
iginal publication is costly and not generally accessible, another reason 
for presenting it in English.—G. J. P.] 
During the last half century Germany has been accorded a 
very high rank in botanical science. One evidence of this is 
that the botanical establishments of the German universities 
are'ablet gratulate tl Ives on being the resort of foreign 
botanists. It may safely be asserted that the impulses which, 
during this century, have carried botanical investigation into 
new lines, have been given in many cases by the teachers at 
the German institutions of learning. In purely systematic 
work England has held first place until recently, and now Ger- 
many is becoming her more and more successful competitor. 
The objects of botanical inquiry, like those in other depart- 
ments of biology, were greatly affected by the theory of se- 
lection emanating from England, which Germany quickly ac- 
cepted. For thetheory of descent, which found fresh support in 
Darwin’s theory of selection, the ground was well prepared, so 
far as botany was concerned, by Hofmeister’s researches in 
comparative morphology. 
The first decades of this century were devoted mainly to 
anatomical investigations, but at that time attention was 
14—Vol. XX.—No. 5. 
