William Gilson Farlow. 
HE news of Professor Farlow’s death on June 3 has been received with 
X. sincere regret by British botanists, more especially by those who are 
connected with the ‘ Annals of Botany \ All who have had the pleasure of 
working with him mourn the loss of a loyal and able colleague and a genial 
friend. 
It is only fitting that some notice of him should appear in this periodical, 
of which he was formerly one of the editors : but nothing like an exhaustive 
account of his life or a critical estimate of his writings need be attempted. 
It will suffice to give, in this short sketch, some general appreciation of his 
significance as a botanist. 
William Gilson Farlow was born in Boston on December 17, 1844. 
He studied at Harvard, and concluded his University career by taking the 
degree of M.D. in 1870. Although he graduated in Medicine, his intention 
was to devote himself to Botany, no doubt inspired by Asa Gray. How he 
proceeded to carry out this intention is told in a pamphlet, e Cryptogamic 
Botany at Harvard University, 1874-96 \ published when his life-work was 
about half done. He narrates how he was invited by Asa Gray in 1870 to 
give instruction in Cryptogamic Botany, and how impossible he found it to 
acquire in America even a passable knowledge of the subject that he had 
to teach. Consequently he came to Europe for instruction, and spent two 
years studying in Germany and France. 
It may be remarked incidentally that a considerable portion of this 
time was spent in the laboratory of de Bary at Strasburg. Whilst working 
there, he made the interesting discovery, which has made his name familiar 
to all botanists, that the prothallus of certain Ferns gives rise vegetatively 
to young Fern-plants (Bot. Zeitg., 1874). This remarkable substitution of 
vegetative propagation for sexual reproduction was subsequently further 
investigated by de Bary and termed 4 apogamy ’ (Bot. Zeitg., 1878). 
Farlow’s attention was, however, mainly directed to Algae and Fungi, 
a study in which at that time de Bary was pre-eminent. 
On his return, fully equipped, to America, Farlow was appointed 
Assistant Professor of Botany at Harvard (1874). In the pamphlet he tells 
by what slow and painful degrees he established a laboratory and accumu- 
lated a herbarium for the proper teaching and study of his subject. His 
efforts were crowned with such success that they were soon recognized by 
his promotion to full professorial rank as Professor of Cryptogamic Botany 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXXIII. No. CXXXII. October, 1919.] 
