William James Beal

William James Beal

William James Beal (born March 11, 1833 in Adrian (Michigan) , † May 12, 1924 in Amherst (Massachusetts) ) was an American botanist and agrostologist . He was a pioneer in the development of hybrid grain and the founder of the WJ Beal Botanical Garden on the Michigan State University campus . Its botanical author abbreviation is " Beal ".

Career

His parents were William and Rachel (Comstock) Beal. In 1863 he married Hannah (1837-1909), the daughter of Ann and John Proud from Rollin Township (Michigan) . Their daughter Jessie married Ray Stannard Baker in 1896 .

Beal studied at the University of Michigan , where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1859 and a Master of Arts in 1862. At Harvard University followed the Scientiæ Baccalaureus in 1865 and ten years later the Master of Science at the University of Chicago . He had taught science from 1858 to 1861 at the Friends Academy in Union Springs.

From 1868 to 1870 he was professor of botany at the University of Chicago, and then until 1910 at the Michigan Agricultural College (MAC; now Michigan State University), where he also served as curator of the museum from 1882-1903. From 1889 he was director of the Forestry Commission for three years.

In 1872 he laid out a botanical garden on two hectares, known as the Wild Garden during his lifetime . An arboretum followed in 1874. With Rolla C. Carpenter he founded Collegeville , today's East Lansing , in 1887 .

In 1879 he started a germination experiment: There was no weed ex, and the only remedy for weeds was weeding. Farmers therefore wanted to know how long seeds lie in the ground and then still germinate. Beal filled 20 bottles of 21 weeds with 50 seeds each, mixed with some damp sand. He buried the bottles in a sandy knoll of his garden. He planned to dig up a bottle every five years and test the germination of the seeds. After Beal's retirement, Henry T. Darlington took over the experiment, increasing the period to ten years. In 1990 it was increased to 20 years. The survival time of the seeds of rye brine did not even reach the first five years, chickweed came to twenty years and the common evening primrose could be revived even after eighty years. At Frank W. Telewski, half of the cockroach mullein seeds were still germinating in 2000. Beal soon recognized that not testing the quality of the seed beforehand was a mistake. Another mistake he saw was mixing the seeds. Until his experiment is completed in the 22nd century, it can be reconsidered. Joseph William Tell Duvel carried out a similar experiment with more than 100 species for 39 years from 1902.

Publications

• The New Botany: A Lecture on the Best Method of Teaching the Science ; 1882
• The Vitality of Seeds Buried in the Soil ; 1885
• The New Botany, Grasses of North America
• History of Michigan Agricultural College
• A Brief Account of the Botanic Garden of the Michigan State Agricultural College, September 1882
• Replies to questions about grasses ; 1886
• Lessons on growing forest trees ; 1886
• Why Not Plant a Grove? ; 1889
• with Charles Fay Wheeler: Michigan Flora: prepared for the 30th annual report of the secretary of the State Board of Agriculture ; 1892
• Hints for Beginners in Botany: By the Inductive Method ; 1896
• with Marie B. Ferrey: Old Seals and State Seals of Michigan ; 1900
• Autobiography: Pioneer life in Southern Michigan in the thirties ; In: Michigan Historical Collections ; Volume 32; P. 236

literature

• Charles Elliott: Why Every Man Needs a Tractor

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi/http%2522/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=21204517
2. ↑ http://www.archive.org/stream/michiganhistori01socigoog/michiganhistori01socigoog_djvu.txt

Web links

• Author entry and list of described plant names for William James Beal at the IPNI