William Gilson Farlow

William Gilson Farlow
William Gilson Farlow
Born	December 17, 1844; Boston, Massachusetts
Died	June 3, 1919 (aged 74)
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard
	Scientific career
Fields	Botany

William Gilson Farlow (December 17, 1844 – June 3, 1919) was an American botanist, born in Boston, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard (A.B., 1866; M.D., 1870), where, after several years of European study, he became adjunct professor of botany in 1874 and professor of cryptogamic botany in 1879.^[1]

Farlow corresponded with Caroline Bingham and Jacob Georg Agardh collaborating in the identification and classification of species of algae previously unknown to science.^[2]

Farlow was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1874.^[3] In 1899 he was president of the American Society of Naturalists; in 1904 president of the National Academy of Sciences; in 1905 president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Philosophical Society; and in 1911 president of the Botanical Society of America.^[4]

He received honorary degrees from Harvard University, the University of Glasgow (LL.D in 1901),^[5] and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

He was known as the "father" of cryptogamic botany in the United States.^[6] Among his students was the phytologist William Albert Setchell.^[7]

Among his publications are:

The Gymnosporangia or Cedar-Apples of the United States (1880)
Marine Algœ of New England (1881)
A Provisional Host-Index of the Fungi of the United States (1888)
Biographical Index of North American Fungi (1905)

With Charles Lewis Anderson and Daniel Cady Eaton he issued the exsiccata series Algae exsiccatae Americae Borealis (1877-1889).^[8]

The standard author abbreviation Farl. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.^[9]

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

References

^ Dupree, A. Hunter (1988). Asa Gray, American Botanist, Friend of Darwin. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 351. ISBN 978-0-801-83741-8.
^ Setchell, W. A.; Dawson, E. Y. (1941). "Binghamia, the Alga, versus Bighamia, the Cactus". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 27 (8): 376–381. Bibcode:1941PNAS...27..376S. doi:10.1073/pnas.27.8.376. PMC 1078343. PMID 16588473.
^ "William Gilson Farlow". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. February 9, 2023. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
^ "Glasgow University Jubilee". The Times. No. 36481. London. June 14, 1901. p. 10. Retrieved January 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Goodwin, Richard H. (2002). A Botanist's Window on the Twentieth Century. Harvard Forest, Petersham, Massachusetts, Harvard University. p. 9.
^ Campbell, D.H. (1945). "Biographical Memoir of William Albert Setchell 1864–1943" (PDF). Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences. 23: 127–147.
^ "Algae exsiccatae Americae Borealis, curantibus W. G. Farlow, C. L. Anderson, D. C. Eaton: IndExs ExsiccataID=1875584127". IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae. Botanische Staatssammlung München. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
^ International Plant Names Index. Farl.