settlement of important questions, as brought to light manifold
phenomena, and so to speak accumulated the raw material; von Mohl on the other hand aimed from the first at penetrating as deeply as possible into vegetable cell-structure, and employing all the anatomical facts in framing a coherent scheme.
We have already called attention to Hugo von Mohl's [1] pre-eminent position in the history both of this and also of the succeeding period. Occupying himself for the most part with phytotomical questions which had been already investigated, he made the solid framework of cellulose the object of special and searching examination, and completed the work of his predecessors on this subject; he thus laid a firm foundation for the researches into the history of development afterwards undertaken by Nageli. Von Mohl, like former phytotomists, generally connected his researches into structural relations with physiological questions; but there was one great and unmistakable difference; he never forgot that the interpreta-
- ↑ Hugo Mohl (afterwards von Mohl) was born at Stuttgart in 1805, died as Professor of Botany in Tübingen in 1872. His father held an important civil office under the Government of Würtemberg. Robert Mohl, also in the service of the Government, Julius Mohl, the Oriental scholar, and Moritz Mohl, the political economist, were his brothers. The instruction at the Gymnasium at Stuttgart, which he attended for twelve years, was confined to the study of the ancient languages; but Mohl early evinced a preference for natural history, physics, and mechanics, and devoted himself in private to these subjects. He became a student of medicine in Tübingen in 1823, and took his degree in 1828. He then spent several years in Munich in intercourse with Schrank, Martins, Zuccharini and Steinheil and obtained abundant material for his researches into Palms, Ferns, and Cycads. He became Professor of Physiology in Berne in 1832, and Professor of Botany in Tübingen after Schübler's death in 1835, and there he remained till his death, refusing various invitations to other spheres of work. He was never married, and his somewhat solitary life of devotion to his science was of the simplest and most uneventful kind. He was intimately acquainted with all parts of botanical science, and possessed a thorough knowledge of many other subjects; he was in fact a true and accomplished investigator of nature. A very pleasing sketch of his life from the pen of De Bary is to be found in the 'Botanische Zeitung' of 1872, No. 31.
