BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
53 
in Germany a man who would devote himself to chemical 
physiology. 
“Water-culture experiments are carried on here some¬ 
times. He had a table on wheels which ran on a rail to an 
outside balcony where the jars could have access to the air 
and light. The wheels were controlled to go very slowly by a 
kind of crank. The hothouse was built quite on the top of 
the house so that there was no obstruction to light and air. 
Kny has displayed much originality in his methods of ar¬ 
ranging his plants. He has injected many by mixing with the 
soil colors that have been taken up and followed along the 
tracks of certain vessels. In drying, the lines of these vessels 
can be most distinctly seen. 
“He has his dried specimens between sheets of heavy paper 
and then placed in pasteboard boxes about the dimensions 
of a music portfolio, and four to six inches deep. His fungi 
are classified according to morphological points, or rather 
all morphological points which can be brought out as particu¬ 
larly characteristic are noted on the covers as features. The 
morphological characters of fungi are so strongly marked 
that they offer great chances for this means of identification. 
The phaenogams and even the cryptogams had their various 
physiological or chemical characters given on the portfolios 
when they were especially notable. I think Kny had one 
portfolio devoted to plants especially characterized by con¬ 
taining iodine. 
“The paper describing all this Kny presented to me. He 
is still a young man of perhaps forty or more, and he was most 
desirous of having me write him and meet his family on Sun¬ 
day. I could not go, however, as I left too early to undertake 
it. He had many specimens of Brendel’s botanical models, 
and praised them highly for the purposes they are intended 
to meet. Kny is also the author of botanical charts which 
I first saw in Copenhagen. They are drawn large and from 
the specimens. ... He said it might be possible for me to 
work with him, but I might have to be in his dark room. 
This was indeed a funereal chamber, painted black. For¬ 
merly it was used for conducting spectroscopic experiments.” 
