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INGEBRIGT HAGEN 



N. WiLLE, Ingebrigt Hagen; Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Sel- 



SKABS SkRIFTER, I917; PUBLISHED IN TrONDHJEM, I918. 



Three Norwegian bryologists of international reputation have died in three 

 recent successive years: N. Bryhn in 191 6, I. Hagen, June 8, 19 17, and B. Kaalaas 

 in 1918. The above account of the life and works of Hagen has just come to my 

 notice through the kindness of Mr. E. B. Chamberlain. Hagen was born in 

 Trondhjem in 1852, the son of a shoemaker. His unusual energy and mental 

 ability made an academic career inevitable and he was from 1874-9 assistant of 

 Professor Worm Miiller at tlie University in Christiania, collaborating with him 

 in the publication of a number of investigations in the field of physiological 

 chemistry. He studied further in Sweden and Germany. In 1883 he began 

 practice as a physician, changing his residence a number of times, until in 1899 

 he established himself at Opdal in the Dovrefjeld region, one of the most remark- 

 able bryological areas known. Even earlier he had begun to transfer a great 

 deal of his energy from medical practice to bryology and finally in 1906, an 

 arrangement was made with the Nansen Foundation assuring him an annuity 

 for the rest of his life and another with Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers 

 Selskab at Trondhjem assuring him a room for his bryological work and a small 

 additional yearly allowance. He then settled in Trondhjem to devote the re- 

 mainder of his life to the study of the Norwegian mosses. This work took the 

 form of "Forarbejder til en Norsk Lovmosflora, " which from 1908 till 1915 had 

 CO veered twenty families from various parts of the moss-system. It is his prin- 

 cipal monument, but he had besides, especially in "Musci Norvegiae Borealis," 

 1899-1904, and in a variety of lesser contributions, some of which have appeared 

 in The Bryologist, made an enduring record of persistent and careful research. 



If I may add to this brief abstract of the contents of Professor Wille's me- 

 moir a word of personal recollection: I was privileged to spend aday in Trondhjem 

 in the summer of 19 12, when I especially wished to discuss the northern Bryums 

 with Dr. Hagen, who undoubtedly knew them better than any other living 

 bryologist and correspondingly better than anyone of the previous generation. 

 He was very generous with assistance and quite confirmed personally the im- 

 pression made through his work of being an open and eager seeker of the truth 

 without a touch of conceit of personal opinion. Some of the things he said 

 illustrate this very well. In connection with Bryum, in which he had created 

 many species, he said that if he were to revise the genus, he would treat it in 

 a very different way, and implied that he would do it with a great reduction of 

 species. At the same time he showed me a rather high pile of very good Bryum 

 material with full new species descriptions carefully written out, to be published 

 as he said after his death. 



Another puzzling statement which I recall was that a descriptive bryolo- 

 gist should not concern himself with phylogenetic speculation. Hagen, as a 

 matter of fact, in his Forarbejder showed a great deal of original thought upon 

 phylogenetic relationships and was one of the few recent bryologists not dis- 



