25 



contain very little that is original. His excellent discoveries concerning 

 rust have been mentioned in the preceding chapter. 



JoHAN Lange (57 &. 79) wrote some short papers on diseases of 

 plants while a teacher of botany at the Roy. Vet. and Agric. College, 

 but they are of no great value. 



So it is no exaggeration to call E. Rostrup the first phytopathologist 

 of Denmark. In possession of great dihgence and working power he 

 quickly made himself familiar with the really good material that, prior 

 to himself, had appeared in foreign countries in connection with these 

 subjects. His sound judgment enabled him to distinguish between the 

 valuable information and all the superstition which had predominated 

 before his own time. Simultaneously with Rostrup, and basing their 

 knowledge on that of his, P. Nielsen and J. L. Jensen soon made 

 themselves conspicuous by ingenious and useful discoveries which 

 will be mentioned later. (On the history of phytopathology in Den:^ 

 mark see R. 88 e & 02 a '-^ P. N. 77 b, E. + H. 96 ^-", F. K. R. 04 b, 

 Madsen 04, K. H. 04). 



THE ASSISTANTS OF E. ROSTRUP IN THE MYCOLOGICAL 

 INVESTIGATION OF DENMARK. 



A man has rarely or never received so little information from 

 others as Rostrup and has made so ample distribution to all around 

 him as he has. Rostrup started as an authodidact, studying quite on 

 his own accord and under difficult circumstances; but as soon as he 

 had made himself familiar with the subject he passed his knowledge 

 on to everybody. Consequently it is very rare that a man should 

 gather so many faithful friends and colleagues around him as was the 

 case with Rostrup. They all sent in fungi for his herbarium, considering 

 it an honour to be allowed to report their observations to him, as his 

 herbarium and the large collection of letters, left by him, witness. 

 Therefore his mycological reports in the "Botanisk Tidsskrift" were 

 more likely to be reports of all that has been found in Denmark, than 

 reports of what has been found by himself, although the latter always 

 formed the greater part. 



It would be unjust, if the names of all Rostrup's intimate friends 

 and his fellow^mycologists were not mentioned in the present work; 

 the scanty biographic information added to their names only appear 

 in order to discern them from others who might possibly bear the 

 same names; most of them have also otherwise made themselves 



