154 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [FEBRUARY 
insistence on continuous work. Although students, especially the 
German students, treated the Gehetmrath with the greatest deference, 
PFEFFER opened the way to the greatest freedom of intercourse, and the 
Botanischer Abend, held twice a month in some small room of a hotel, 
and attended by staff and research students, was notably a social occa- 
sion, giving opportunity for lively discourse and debate. 
As was the lot of many other intellectuals in Europe, PFEFFER’S 
last days fell upon evil times. The bare necessities of life were difficult 
to obtain; his only child, a son of 34 years, who had attained some 
prominence as a chemist, was killed in battle near the close of the war; 
the end of his professorship was near, by the rules of the new govern- 
ment; his country had fallen from her commanding position. The 
burden was too much for his sensitive soul, and it crushed him. Yet 
his life was successful beyond that of most men. There are few fields 
in plant physiology that have not been extended by his researches. 
Physics, chemistry, and general biology have profited by his classical 
monographs. His pupils are professors and teachers over the whole 
world.—F. C. Newcomse, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. 
