that the filaments of lichens and fungi consist of cells. Noted 
also as a teacher and author of popular works. 
Charles Francois Brisseau de Mirbel 
(b. Paris, March 22, 1776. 
d. Champerret, near Paris, September 12, 1854). 
Founder of microscopic plant anatomy in France. Traite d'anat- 
omie et de phvsiologie vegetate (1802). Membre de 1’Institut (1803). 
Professor of botany in the University of Paris. Attacked for 
teaching plant anatomy and physiology at the sacrifice of sys- 
tematic botany in the Sorbonne. He was the first to recognize 
that all plant tissue is modified parenchyma. Made the" first 
thorough study of the liverwort, Alarchantia (1835). 
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt 
( b . Berlin, September 14, 1769. d. Berlin, May 6, 1859). 
Naturalist and traveller. Author of /Cosmos. He explored South 
America, and in his Essai sur la geographic de ' plantes (1805), in 
collaboration with Aime Bonpland, he laid the foundations ofthe 
science of plant geography. First to use isothermal lines. 
Agassiz said of him: “The influence he has exerted upon the 
progress of science is incalculable. . . . With him ends a 
great period in the history of science”. 
Stephen Elliott 
( b . Beaufort, South Carolina, November 11, 1771. 
d. Charleston, March 23, 1830). 
Representative and senator in the state legislature. President 
of the State Bank. Editor of the “Southern Review”. For some 
years professor of botany in the South Carolina Medical College. 
Sketch of the botany of South Carolitia and Georgia (1821-1824). 
This was the first detailed work on the systematic botany of the 
southern United States. 
Thomas Nuttall 
( b . Settle, Yorkshire, England, January 5, 1786. 
d. St. Helen’s, Lancashire, September 10, 1859). 
Botanist and ornithologist. He resided for thirty-three years in 
America. For nine years curator of the Botanic Garden of Har- 
vard College. Genera of North American plants and catalog of the 
species of the year 1817 . He travelled in almost every state of the 
Union and is credited with more new species than any other 
explorer in North America. 
Rafinesque (Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz) 
(b. Galatz, near Constantinople, October 22, 1783. 
d. Philadelphia, September 18, 1840). 
Coming to the United States at the age of nineteen, he became 
interested in the flora of North America. For seven years teacher 
in Transylvania University (Kentucky), being the first teacher 
of natural science west of the Appalachian Mountains. He 
founded numerous genera and species of plants, (also twelve 
“new species” of thunder and lightning) . New flora and botany 
of North America (1836). Early defender of evolution. 
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