The Contributions to Botany of Julius von Sachs

Abstract

Sachs. By this plan an opportunity is given the several speakers of presenting to their listeners a true perspective of the field under consideration, and of the position and influence therein of Sachs, its central figure. The first epoch we have had already passed before us, and I feel certain all have been impressed with the slow advance of physiology and of botany until approximately the middle of the nineteenth century, when, with new methods and directive thought so essential to real progress, a new era was ushered in. In this era Julius von Sachs was to play a most important r61e.In presenting the contributions which Sachs has made, I feel that full justice cannot be done him should I confine my remarks strictly to physiology. One of his most far-reaching and lasting contributions was the masterly manner in which he coordinated the several fields of botany, and made the functional plant the unit of interest. This he did in his 'Lehrbuch/ first edition, 1868.The status of botany, particularly in America and England, at that period was deplorable. The few bold spirits that ventured into the botanic field were compelled to make their way to Germany to sit as disciples at the feet of the great masters, â€" De Bary, Sachs, Strasburger, etc., successors or contemporaries of Schleiden, von Mohl and Hofmeister. To this galaxy of investigators, largely in the period from 1840 to 1880, we owe the most distinctive discoveries and advances in the history of botany, and to the genius of Sachs, the organization of these into a new and virile botany. When I seem to digress from the more Hmited subject assigned me and speak of the contributions that Sachs -ation held at the Missouri Botanical Garden â-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Julius Ann (15)