Charles Edwin Bessey was born in Milton Township, Wayne 
County, Ohio, May 21, 1845, and died at Lincoln, Nebraska, 
February 25; 1912. 
He was educated in the country schools and academy, and at 
the Michigan Agricultural College, from which he graduated in 
1869. In February, 1870, he began his duties as Professor of 
Botany at the Iowa State College at Ames, Iowa. In addition to 
botany, he taught zoology and entomology for the larger portion 
of the fifteen years that he remained at that institution. He as¬ 
sumed the professorship of botany at the University of Nebraska 
in November, 1884, a position held by him until his death. 
His greatest contributions to botany are: the introduction of 
the laboratory method in teaching the science ; his enrichment 
of the whole field of botany by teaching many new aspects of the 
subject; and his profound influence upon students and future 
investigators. 
