_A.ni.  Jour.  Pharm.  "I 
April,  1893.  j 
Obituary. 
207 
OBITUARY. 
Francis  Wolle,  a  Moravian  minister  and  educator,  died  at  Bethlehem,  Pa., 
February  10,  aged  75  years.  He  was  born  at  Nazareth,  Pa.,  and  educated  at 
Nazareth  Hall  and  at  Bethlehem.  He  was  the  originator  of  a  machine  for  the 
manufacture  of  paper  bags,  first  patented  in  1852,  and  for  twenty  years  was 
principal  of  the  Moravian  seminary  for  young  ladies  at  Bethlehem.  His  love 
for  natural  history  led  him  finally  to  the  study  of  low  vegetable  organisms, 
resulting  in  the  publication,  since  1884,  of  four  large  illustrated  volumes  on 
desmids,  fresh  water  algae  and  diatomacese,  which  established  his  reputation  as 
a  scientist  and  as  an  authority  in  this  special  field. 
George  Vasey,  M.D.,  botanist  at  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  died  in 
Washington,  D.  C,  March  4,  at  the  age  of  seventy-one  years,  of  constriction 
of  the  bowels.  Born  at  Scarborough,  Yorkshire,  England,  February  28,  1822, 
lie  came  with  his  parents  to  America,  when  a  child,  received  his  medical  educa- 
tion at  the  Berkshire  Medical  College,  Pittsfield,  Mass.,  where  he  graduated  in 
1848,  and  afterward  practised  medicine  in  Illinois,  until  in  April,  1872,  he  was 
appointed  botanist  to  the  Department  of  Agriculture  at  the  seat  of  the  National 
Government.  The  accumulation  and  arrangement  of  the  National  herbarium, 
comprising  over  25,000  species  of  plant,  is  largely  due  to  his  untiring  efforts. 
His  chief  work  was  upon  grasses,  with  the  purpose,  as  he  stated  in  his  annual 
report  for  1886,  "of  bringing  to  view  and  into  cultivation  new  kinds  which 
might  prove  useful  additions  to  the  agriculture  of  the  country.  ...  In  a 
country  so  extensive  as  ours,  embracing  such  a  variety  of  soil,  surface  and 
climate,  it  cannot  be  expected  that  any  one  kind  of  grass  will  be  adapted  to 
cultivation  in  all  situations.  .  .  .  Particularly  in  the  arid  regions  of  the 
West  new  kinds  of  grasses  are  needed,  adapted  to  the  peculiar  conditions  there 
existing."  A  number  of  botanical  pamphlets  and  monographs,  of  which  he 
was  the  author,  or  which  were  prepared  under  his  supervision,  have  been  issued 
by  the  Department,  and  several  were  noticed  in  previous  volumes  of  this 
journal. 
Carl  Prantl,  professor  of  botany  at  the  University  of  Breslau,  died  February 
24,  after  prolonged  illness,  of  pulmonary  disease.  He  was  born  September 
10,  1849,  in  Munich,  where  his  father  was  professor  at  the  University,  and 
where  he  received  his  scientific  education,  and  graduated  after  especially  study- 
ing botany  under  Professors  Naegeli  and  Radlkofer.  In  1870,  his  essay  on 
"  inulin,  a  contribution  to  vegetable  physiology,"  was  awarded  the  prize  of  the 
philosophic  faculty  of  the  University  named.  In  1873,  he  became  connected,  as 
private  lecturer,  with  the  University  of  Wurzburg,  and  in  the  following  year 
published  his  manual  on  Botany,  of  which  the  eighth  edition  appeared  in  189 1. 
He  accepted,  in  1876,  a  call  as  professor  of  botany  to  the  College  of  Forestry 
-at  Aschaffenburg,  and  in  1890  succeeded  Bngler  at  Breslau.  A  Flora  of 
Bavaria  was  published  by  him  in  1884,  and  he  was  the  author  of  numerous 
essays,  relating  to  morphological,  physiological  and  systematic  botany  ;  per- 
haps his  most  important  literary  labor  was  in  connection  with  "Natiirliche 
Pflanzenfamilien  "  (natural  plant  families),  of  which  he  was  the  joint  editor, 
with  his  friend  Engler,  and  for  which  he  elaborated  several  phsenogamous 
orders  ;  the  text  for  the  cryptogams,  and  more  particularly  for  the  ferns,  which 
