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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1268 



zoology in the University of South Carolina, 

 and in 1889 became professor of biology and 

 botany in the Alabama Polytechnic Institute. 

 While at the latter institution he published as 

 a bulletin of the Alabama Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station perhaps his best known 

 zoological paper on the root-gall nematode, 

 Heterodera radicicola. His interests shifted 

 rapidly, however, to the fields of plant pathology 

 and mycology, and in 1892 he returned to his 

 ahna mater to accept the position of assistant 

 professor of botany. He became associate pro- 

 fesor in 1893, and at the death of Professor 

 Prentiss in 1896 became head of the depart- 

 ment. 



During the last twenty-five years of his life, 

 though burdened with the multitudinous 

 duties of teaching and administration, he 

 found time to devote himself to research in 

 various fields of botany. He labored untiringly 

 and published over one hundred and fifty 

 papers concerning his investigations. These 

 reveal an unusually wide range of interests. 

 He was also the author of extensively used 

 text books including, " The Biology of Ferns," 

 " Elementary Botany," " A College Text Book 

 of Botany " and " Mushrooms Edible, Poison- 

 ous, etc." He rapidly attained an eminent 

 position among the botanists of the world, and 

 received many honors. He was the fitrst pres- 

 ident of the Ameican Botanical Society, and 

 throughout his life took an active part in 

 numerous other scientific organizations. His 

 high standing as a scientist was given formal 

 recognition when in 1918 he was elected a 

 member of the ISTational Academy of Science. 

 He served as a delegate to the International 

 Botanical Congresses of 1905 and 1910 held in 

 Vienna and Brussels respectively, and at these 

 meetings used his influence to obtain legisla- 

 tion making for greater stability and uni- 

 formity in botanical nomenclature. He trav- 

 eled in various countries of Europe studying 

 in the field the fleshy fungi of the different 

 regions, and making the acquaintance of an 

 extensive circle of his European colleagues. 

 He was widely known in other lands as a 

 prominent American student of the fungi. 



Although his interests covered many fields 

 of botany his highest attainments were 



realized in mycology. He was undoubtedly 

 one of the foremost students of the fleshy 

 Basidiomycetes which America has produced. 

 Through years of enthusiastic collecting and 

 study he had acquired a herbarimn of speci- 

 mens and a wealth of photographs and notes 

 which gave him a thoroughly comprehensive 

 grasp of this field. Had he lived to complete 

 the extensive illustrated monograph of this 

 group which he had in process of preparation 

 it would have far surpassed in thoroughness 

 and scope any similar paper on these fungi 

 which has yet appeared in any language. His 

 inability to do so will always remain a source 

 of great regret to his students, and constitutes 

 a very distinct loss to the science of mycology. 



In the field of general mycology Professor 

 Atkinson was especially interested in ques- 

 tions of phylogeny. Any newly discovered 

 fungus which promised to supply a transition 

 form from one group to another gained his 

 immediate interest. This interest in phylogeny 

 found expression in his comprehensive papers 

 on the origin of the Phycomycetes and 

 Ascomycetes, and is also reflected in the 

 nmnerous papers which he and his students 

 published on the ontogeny of the fruit-body in 

 many members of the Agaricacese and related 

 groups. The imusual keenness of his reason- 

 ing powers and the richness of the fund of 

 laiowledge from which he drew his conclusions 

 are revealed in some of the philosophical dis- 

 cussions in these papers. His marvelously re- 

 tentive memory was at once the admiration 

 and the despair of his students. 



He was a man of firm convictions, resolute 

 in setting for himself the highest standards of 

 scientific excellence, and impatient of medioc- 

 rity' in others. His untiring devotion to his 

 work wiH long remain an inspiration to those 

 whose fortune it was to know him intimately 

 as teacher or friend. Harry M. Eitzpatrick 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



THE GERMS OF INFLUENZA AND YELLOW 

 FEVERi 



Major H. Graeme Gibson, E. A. M. C, who 

 died recently at Abbeville, was a martyr to 



1 From the London Times. 



