66 BEINRICH ANTON DE BABY. 



the work of original research ; and, in his ' Untersuclmngen iiber 

 die Brandpilze,' published when twenty-two years of age, there is 

 no trace of a prentice hand- The next memoir of note was his 

 4 Untersuclmngen iiber die Familie der Conjugaten ' — an investiga- 

 tion full of interest to the student of the development of sexuality 

 in lower organisms. These researches established his reputation 

 for brilliant work; but when, in the year following (1859), the 

 publication of the last memoir, there appeared * Die Mycetozoen ' 

 (second edition 1864), de Bary came at once into the front rank of 

 biologists. In this remarkable paper there was told the life- 

 history of these organisms, which have continued to fascinate every 

 one since. There is hardly a biologist of note of the present 

 generation who has not at some time or other "taken up" the 

 Mycetozoa. Are they animals or plants ? Or is it profitable to put 

 the question in that form at all ? They had been considered fungi 

 of high organisation, until at one stroke they sank so low in the 

 scale of classification that the botanist likes to think of them as 

 beyond the frontier line altogether. Next followed the ' Eecherches 

 sur les developpement de quelques champignons parasites/ in which 

 our knowledge of Peronosporeae especially was much extended. 

 Next ' Die Fruchtentwickelung der Ascomyceten ' gave rise to much 

 discussion — limited, however, to botanists. In the meantime de 

 Bary and Woronin had established the ■ Beitrage zur Morphologie 

 und Physiologie der Pilze, ' consisting of a series of memoirs coming 

 out at uncertain times and continued down to a few years ago. 

 In 1866 his handbook, ■ Die Morphologie und Physiologie der Pilze, 

 Flechten und Myxomyceten/ represented the first serious attempt 

 to establish order in the vast literature of mycology. It was a 

 splendid performance ; and the impetus it gave to research, and, 

 better still, the direction cannot be overvalued. Numerous 

 memoirs followed. De Bary became editor of the ■ Botanische 

 Zeitung,' a weekly journal, in addition to his other labours, and 

 enriched it with much of his own work. Among the papers pub- 

 lished during this time was the account of his own investigation of 

 the potato-disease, which attracted much notice in this country. 

 A great labour was carried on during these years and finally saw 

 the light in 1877— his ' Vergleichende Anatomie der Vegetations 

 organe der Phanerogamen und Fame - a book it presenting 

 enormous labour as well as insight of the highest order. In 1878 

 he published his charming primer of Botany ; and another period 

 followed in which papers now and then appeared — for example, 

 that on apogamy — and during which he was perfecting what was 

 nominally a second edition of the great book on fungi, but turned 

 out to be in point of fact a new work. In 1884 appeared the 

 'Vergleichende Morphologie und Biologie der Pilze, Mycetozoen 

 und Bacterien/ which, in many respects, stands not only above his 

 own previous work but well in advance of anything in the con- 

 temporary literature of botany. In 1886 his 'Vorlesungen iiber 

 Bacterien ' came as an especial pleasure to those who wished to 

 see this group dealt with by an accomplished naturalist. 



It would be interesting to point out in greater detail than these 



