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S. SCHWENDENEE, 1829-1919. 



Simon Schwendenee, who was elected a Foreign Member of the Eoj^al 

 Society in 1913, was a native of Switzerland. He was born on February 10, 

 1829, at Buchs, in the Canton of St. Gallen. His father was a farmer, but 

 the son showed a preference for the pursuit of knowledge rather than for the 

 practice of agriculture ; consequently, on the completion of his school- 

 education, he became, not a farmer, but a teacher in the elementary school 

 of his native town. A bequest from his grandfather made it possible for 

 him to enter upon a University career. With this end in view, he went to 

 Geneva, where he studied Botany under Alphonse de Candolle. Unfortu- 

 nately, his means were insufficient to enable hiui to complete his University 

 course, and he was compelled to have recourse to school-teaching for a time. 

 In 1856 he removed to Zurich, to resume his botanical studies under Oswald 

 Heer, and on August 8 he took his degree with a pbaenological thesis, begun 

 at Geneva, ' Ueber die periodischen Erscheinungen der Natur, insbesondere 

 der Pflanzenwelt.' 



Shortly before this NaegeU had come to Zurich, and, under bis guidance, 

 Schwendener began to study the microscopical anatomy of plants. So well 

 did teacher and pupil agree that, when in 1857 ISTaegeli was called to the 

 Chair of Botany in Munich, he took Schwendener with him as his assistant. 

 After ten years with Naegeli at Munich, Schwendener was nominated 

 Professor of Botany at Basle. Ten years later, in 1877, he moved on to 

 Tubingen, where he succeeded Hofmeister ; and in 1879, on the death of 

 Alexander Braun, he became Professor of Botany at Berlin, where he 

 remained for the rest of his long life. He died on May 27, 1919. He was 

 never married. 



The consideration of Schwendener's work may well begin with the 

 important book ' Das Mikroskop,' in which he collaborated with Naegeli, 

 published 1865-7 (2nd ed., 1877), a book which exercised considerable 

 influence upon botanical thought. Naegeli wrote the part relating to the 

 structure and morphology of plants, whilst Schwendener was responsible for 

 the part dealing with the mechanism and the optical theory of the micro- 

 scope. His remarkably efficient treatment of the subject revealed the 

 natural bent of his mind towards mathematics, which was so marked that it 

 is somewhat a matter of surprise that he did not take up physical science as 

 his special study, rather than botany. At this time he was also engaged 

 upon definitely botanical work, the only work of the kind that he 

 produced, which made him famous. He had undertaken, no doubt at 

 aSTaegeli's suggestion, an investigation into the structure of Lichens, the 

 results of which, with the title " Untersuchungen ueber den Flechten- 

 thallus," appeared in Naegeli's ' Beitrage zur wissenschaftlichen Botanik,' 

 1860-3-8. In the course of his work, he devoted special attention to the 



