Page:History of botany (Sachs; Garnsey).djvu/447

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Chap. i.]

Karl Friedrich Gartner.

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theory. The only reply to this offer, an essay by Wiegmann which was not sent in till 1828, did not come up to the requirements of the Academy, and was rewarded with only half the prize. The Dutch Academy at Haarlem was more successful when induced by Reinwardt in 1830 to propose the question in a somewhat altered form and in connection with practical horticulture. This prize was contended for by Karl Friedrich Gärtner^[1], whose essay delayed by circumstances till 1837 received the prize of honour and an extraordinary reward. But the whole body of his results, derived from the experimental researches of five-and-twenty years, were not published till 1849 and then in a large volume, 'Versuche und Beobachtungen über die Bastardzeugung,' Stuttgart, 1849, having been preceded by an introductory work of equal extent, 'Versuche und Beobachtungen über die Befruchtungsorgane der vollkommeneren Gewachse und über die natürliche und ktinstliche Befruchtung durch den eigenen Pollen.' The two works together are the most thorough and complete account of experimental investigation into sexual relations in plants which had yet been written. They are a brilliant termination of the period of doubt with respect to sexuality in plants which succeeded to the age of Koelreuter a termination which coincides in time with the lively discussion which was being maintained on the strength of microscopical investigations by

↑ Karl Friedrich Gartner, son of Joseph Gartner, was born at Calw in 1772, and died there in 1850. He attended lectures on natural science at the Carlsacademie at Stuttgart, and then went first to Jena for medical instruction, and in 1793 to Göttingen, where he was a pupil of Lichtenberg. He took a degree in 1796 and settled as a physician in his native town. Here he occupied himself at first with questions of human physiology, and afterwards worked at the supplement to his father's 'Carpologia.' He collected notices and extracts for a complete work on vegetable physiology. This design was never fulfilled, but it led to his taking up the question of sexuality in plants, to which he devoted twenty-five years ('Jahresheft des Vereins fiir vaterl. Naturkunde in Würtemberg,' 1852, vol. viii, p. 16).

[1] Karl Friedrich Gartner, son of Joseph Gartner, was born at Calw in 1772, and died there in 1850. He attended lectures on natural science at the Carlsacademie at Stuttgart, and then went first to Jena for medical instruction, and in 1793 to Göttingen, where he was a pupil of Lichtenberg. He took a degree in 1796 and settled as a physician in his native town. Here he occupied himself at first with questions of human physiology, and afterwards worked at the supplement to his father's 'Carpologia.' He collected notices and extracts for a complete work on vegetable physiology. This design was never fulfilled, but it led to his taking up the question of sexuality in plants, to which he devoted twenty-five years ('Jahresheft des Vereins fiir vaterl. Naturkunde in Würtemberg,' 1852, vol. viii, p. 16).

[1]