Charles Edwin Bessey

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Charles Edwin Bessey

Charles Edwin Bessey (born May 1, 1845 in Milton , Ohio , † February 25, 1915 in Lincoln , Nebraska ) was an American botanist and mycologist . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Bessey ".

Life

Bessey studied from 1866 at Michigan Agricultural College in East Lansing with a bachelor's degree in botany in 1869 and also in 1872/73 and 1875 at Harvard University, especially with Asa Gray . In 1870 he became an instructor and in 1872 professor of botany at the Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) and in 1884 at the University of Nebraska (Industrial College), where he became dean in 1909 and was chancellor from 1888 to 1891 and from 1899 to 1900.

He is known for the Bessey system of taxonomy of flowering plants named after him , which was based on the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin . In a modified form, it also forms the basis of modern classification systems. A reforestation experiment led by him also formed the basis of what would later become the Nebraska National Forest. He built up the botany faculties at both Iowa State University and the University of Nebraska, and wrote two botany textbooks that were widely used in the United States at the time.

In 1911 he was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science . In 2009 he was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame . He was one of the founders of the Iowa Academy of Sciences.

From 1880 to 1897 he was editor of botany of American Naturalist and from 1897 to 1915 of Science .

His son Ernst Bessey (1877-1957) was a professor of botany at Michigan State University .

Fonts

  • The Geography of Iowa . Cincinnati, 1878
  • Botany for High Schools and Colleges . New York, 1880
  • The Essentials of Botany . 1884
  • Evolution and Classification . 1893
  • Phylogeny and Taxonomy of the Angiosperms . In: Botanical Gazette , Volume 34, 1897, pp. 145-178.
  • Elementary Botany . 1904
  • Plant Migration Studies . 1905
  • Synopsis of Plant Phyla . 1907
  • Outlines of Plant Phyla ., 1909
  • with others: New Elementary Agriculture . 9th edition 1911
  • The phylogenetic taxonomy of flowering plants . In: Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden . Volume 2, 1915, pp. 109-164.

In 1881 he got a new edition of the botany textbook by William Ramsay McNab .

literature

  • Richard A. Overfield, Science With Practice: Charles E. Bessey and the Maturing of American Botany . Iowa State University Press 1993
  • Thomas R. Walsh: Charles E. Bessey: Land Grant Professor . Dissertation, University of Nebraska, 1972
  • Ronald C. Tobey: Saving the Prairies: The Life Cycle of the Founding School of American Plant Ecology 1895-1955 . University of California Press, 1981
  • Joseph Ewan: Bessey . In: Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  • Raymond J. Pool: A Brief Sketch of the Life of Charles Edwin Bessey . Botanical Society of America, 1915, unl.edu (PDF; 441 kB; English)
  • Bessey, Charles Edwin . In: James Grant Wilson, John Fiske (Eds.): Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography . Supplement. D. Appleton and Company, New York 1901, pp. 251 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Bessey, Charles Edwin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American botanist and mycologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1845
PLACE OF BIRTH Milton , Ohio
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1915
Place of death Lincoln , Nebraska