AMERICAN 
JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
Vol. VII May, 1920 No. 5 
WILLIAM GILSON FARLOW^ 
December ly, 1844- June 3, 1919 
A. F. Blakeslee, Roland Thaxter, and William Trelease 
Since the death of Asa Gray, in 1887, no American botanist has been 
accorded quite the esteem in which Professor Farlow was held. As with 
Bornet, this was due even more to a large influential acquaintance and a 
recognized conservative well-informed sanity in judgment, than to volume 
or importance of the publications of his later life. .Indeed, for some years 
past he has been rather hesitant about putting into print things that he 
knew better than others — possibly through the realization of age, that 
nothing is really finished even when an expert gets to the end of what he 
can do with it; that sometime or other somebody else can go as far; and 
that in any event somebody else will have to start again at the beginning, 
sometime or other. 
Merely to possess a large acquaintanceship does not mean necessarily 
that a man will be liked or admired or respected. Professor Farlow's 
personality was such that with few and unimportant exceptions the many 
who had the privilege of knowing him liked and admired and respected 
him to an unusual degree. His character and talent and learning were 
such as to command affection, admiration, and respect. If either attribute 
was ever withheld by a colleague or acquaintance it was because of an utter 
failure to urTderstand his nature, which did not court praise or deference and 
sometimes in an effort to escape one or the other prompted a seeming 
cynicism or levity which was as unreal as it was ready and brilliant. 
Dr. Farlow was characterized not only by an artistic temperament but 
by unusual quickness of perception and response. Those who knew him 
best were likely to hesitate before engaging him in even the most friendly 
of bantering encounters: but his tongue was not sharp for those of whom 
he disapproved, and when he wanted to bring a thing into question he had 
the art of doing it by some most inoffensive but nevertheless unmistakable 
anecdote or figure of speech. 
Men who enlist the interest of others differ greatly in the way in which 
they communicate their own enthusiasm. Gray bubbled over with it as 
he worked and talked. Farlow was much less effusive, but those who were 
^ Prepared at the request of the council of the Botanical Society of America. 
The Journal for April (7: 125-172) was issued May 20, 1920.] 
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