AmAJprii?]9i3arm'}     Change  from  Old  to  New  Botany.  163 
America.  My  neighbors  kept  saying:  "  der  schmutzige  Kerl." 
On  asking  who  the  dirty  fellow  was,  they  said  Naegeli.  In  my 
innocence  I  inquired  what  Naegeli  they  meant.  They  an- 
swered "  Der  Naegeli."  Even  starch  could  not  save  his 
reputation,  and  they  proceeded  to  tell  not  one  but  many  tales 
which  I  know  you  are  dying  to  hear  but  which  I  am  not  going 
to  tell  you.  What  I  wish  to  say  is  this :  At  the  same  dinner  some 
one,  possibly  Rostafinski,  spoke  of  a  certain  Strasburger,  a  botanist. 
I  understood  him  to  refer  to  some  botanist  living  in  Strassburg 
and  asked  his  name.  I  was  told  that  he  was  a  Pole  named  Stras- 
burger who  lived  not  in  Strassburg  but  in  Jena  and  had  written  a 
work  which  showed  him  to  be  a  promising  young  man.  That  was 
the  first  time  that  I  had  heard  of  Strasburger,  who  had  not  then 
begun  his  woirk  in  cytology.  The  promise  was  fulfilled  and  the 
young  man  of  1873  became  one  of  the  bright  lights  of  the  botanical 
world.  At  the  close  of  his  long  but  too  brief  career  he  left  a 
brilliant  school  in  a  department  of  botany  which  he  had  created  and 
of  which  he  remained  until  his  death  the  leading  spirit.  Fortunately 
we  have  with  us  a  younger  generation  admirably  qualified  to  con- 
tinue the  work  which  he  began. 
For  the  last  twenty  years  most  young  American  botanists  have 
thought  it  necessary  to  study  in  Germany  to  complete  their  educa- 
tion, but,  when  I  returned  in  1874,  I  was  looked  upon  very  much 
as  one  would  be  who  had  returned  from  a  journey  in  Thibet  or 
Central  Africa.  Things  had  changed.  The  country  had  recovered 
from  the  effects  of  the  Civil  War,  money  was  more  abundant  and 
more  could  be  spent  on  science.  New  professors  were  appointed 
in  the  colleges  and  courses  for  the  instruction  of  school  teachers 
in  botany  and  zoology  were  provided  by  private  individuals.  I 
have  time  only  to  refer  to  one  curious  episode  in  the  development 
of  botany  in  America.  I  refer  to  what  may  be  called  the  biological 
epidemic  which  broke  out  soon  after  I  returned  to  America  and 
threatened  for  a  time  to  drive  botany  from  the  field.  If  at  some 
future  time  some  one  ventures  to  write  a  book  on  the  abuse  of  the 
"  oloigies  "  the  chapter  on  biology  will  be  the  most  interesting.  As 
far  as  I  can  make  out,  as  originally  used,  biology  did  not  differ 
much  from  physiology.  The  laboratory  manual  of  Huxley  and 
Martin  was  planned  to  correct  the  common  idea  that  botany  and 
zoology  consisted  in  the  description  of  different  species  of  plants 
