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A Brief Sketch Of The Life And Work Of Charles Edwin Bessey, Raymond J. Pool
A Brief Sketch Of The Life And Work Of Charles Edwin Bessey, Raymond J. Pool
Papers in Systematics & Biological Diversity
Charles Edwin Bessey, professor of botany and head of the department of botany in the University of Nebraska since 1884 and a conspicuous figure in American science and education, passed away at his home in Lincoln on February 25, 1915, after a critical illness of four weeks.
The Bessey family is of French extraction, the original form of the name being Besse. The tradition is that the early members of the family, who were Huguenots, were compelled on account of religious persecution to flee to England from the old home near Strassburg in Alsace. This exodus occurred in the latter …
The Chimney-Shaped Stomata Of Holacantha Emoryi, Charles E. Bessey
The Chimney-Shaped Stomata Of Holacantha Emoryi, Charles E. Bessey
Papers in Systematics & Biological Diversity
Last December two fine twigs and a cluster of the ripe fruits of the "burro thorn" (Holacantha emoryi Gray) were brought to the Botanical Department of the University of Nebraska by Mrs. Dorothy Bacon, who had collected them in the Salt River valley, near Phoenix, Arizona. They at once attracted attention because of their complete leaflessness, and the thorny nature of their branches. The shrub is said to grow about three meters high, and to form ail impenetrable thicket from the ground up. It grows in the desert, where it was first found about fifty years ago by Major …
The Morphology Of The Pine Cone, Charles E. Bessey
The Morphology Of The Pine Cone, Charles E. Bessey
Papers in Systematics & Biological Diversity
So much has been said in regard to the morphology of the cone of the pine and its near allies that it would seem impossible as well as unnecessary to suggest anything further. However, the recent excellent summary in Coulter and Chamberlain's “Morphology of the Spermatophytes" of the many theories hitherto advanced to clear up the matter, and the conclusions reached by the authors named, show that it is by no means settled, and perhaps warrant me in presenting an interpretation which I have used in lectures before my own classes for half a dozen years or more.
The Modern Conception Of The Structure And Classification Of Diatoms, Charles E. Bessey
The Modern Conception Of The Structure And Classification Of Diatoms, Charles E. Bessey
Papers in Systematics & Biological Diversity
In the revision of the Bacillariaceae for Engler and Prantl's “Pflanzenfamilien," Schutt has availed himself principally of the studies of Otto Muller and has given us the first clear conception of the meaning of the diatom cell, and its relation to the diatom filament. Starting with the filament, we regard it as the typical condition, from which the unicellular diatoms have been derived by the solution of the filament and the adaptation of the separate cells to an independent life. Diatoms are thus regarded as typically filamentous algae, and are no longer to be placed among unicellular plants. Accordingly their …
The Phytogeography Of Nebraska, Roscoe Pound, Frederic E. Clements
The Phytogeography Of Nebraska, Roscoe Pound, Frederic E. Clements
Papers in Systematics & Biological Diversity
From the preface we learn that this work is the result of nearly five years of active study of the floral covering of Nebraska, carried on by the members of the Botanical Seminar in the Botanical Survey of the State of Nebraska. The systematic study of the vegetation of Nebraska was begun by Dr. Bessey in 1884, and has since been carried on by him and his students, all previous collecting having been more or less desultory and unreliable. The Botanical Survey was organized in 1892, and its work has been directed to the collecting of specimens and observations for …
Phylogeny And Taxonomy Of The Angiosperms, Charles E. Bessey
Phylogeny And Taxonomy Of The Angiosperms, Charles E. Bessey
Papers in Systematics & Biological Diversity
It is unnecessary for me to state at the outset what is evident to every botanist, that it is as yet impossible to present a complete phylogeny of the angiosperms. Phytopaleontology is too young a science, and the materials with which it deals are yet far too scanty to have given us direct evidence as to the phylogeny of all families of plants. No one can trace with great certainty from the fossil remains of plants yet discovered the genealogy of any considerable portion of the vegetable kingdom. It will be many a year before the direct evidence we so …
A Meeting-Place For Two Floras, Charles E. Bessey
A Meeting-Place For Two Floras, Charles E. Bessey
Papers in Systematics & Biological Diversity
About half-way across the northern part of Nebraska, a few miles east of the 100th meridian, there is a very interesting botanical locality. A small stream starts at a point about twenty or twenty-five miles south of the Niobrara River, and runs northward through a deep and winding canyon to the river mentioned. The surrounding country is absolutely treeless. and the surface is in many places thrown up into rounded hills of what must have once been drifting sand. The canyon sides are very abrupt, and they descend in many places fully two hundred feet before the bottom is reached. …
The Asparagus For Histological Study, Charles E. Bessey
The Asparagus For Histological Study, Charles E. Bessey
Papers in Systematics & Biological Diversity
I have for several years been wanting a good Monocotyledon for histological study in the botanical laboratory, one which should be for its sub class what the pumpkin is for the dicotyledons. The indian corn, which is commonly used, is too difficult, and too greatly specialized a type, exhibiting as it does the peculiar nodal structure of the stem of the Grarninex, rather than the structure of the stem of monocotyledons in general. A good representative stem. and one which can be obtained everywhere in good condition, from early spring until the end of the season, is the asparagus. …
A Single Dendrometer, Charles E. Bessey
A Single Dendrometer, Charles E. Bessey
Papers in Systematics & Biological Diversity
A dendrometer is constructed essentially as follows: A tube, t, about two inches in diameter, and nearly or quite a foot in length, is supported in a vertical position by two pins, pp, near its upper end; and these pins rest upon a ring, r forming a simple gimbal which allows the tube by its own weight to assume an exactly vertical position. In the lower end of the tube two mirrors, A and B, are placed side by side, each occupying one half of the section of the diameter of the tube. One of these mirrors …
The Supposed Dimorphism Of Lithospermum Longiflorum, Charles E. Bessey
The Supposed Dimorphism Of Lithospermum Longiflorum, Charles E. Bessey
Papers in Systematics & Biological Diversity
The plant under consideration is a common herbaceous perennial of the prairies and great plains of North America. In the latter part of April and during the month of May it produces flowers with bright yellow salver-shaped (hypocraterimorphous) corollas, whose tubes are about thirty mm. (one and one-fifth inch) long, and from two to three mm. in diameter. About the first of June, in central Iowa, these large flowers suddenly disappear, and from this time forward until the autumn frosts, they produce only small cleistogamous flowers. The corolla lobes of the latter cohere somewhat, and remain closed, and …
Sensitive Stamens In Portulaca, Charles E. Bessey
Sensitive Stamens In Portulaca, Charles E. Bessey
Papers in Systematics & Biological Diversity
Two years ago my attention was first called to the sensitiveness of the stamens of Portulaca grandiflora, by observing a peculiar motion in them, while a small wild bee was engaged in gathering honey, and perhaps pollen, from the flowers. Upon trial I found that I could, by touching the stamens, make them move through quite considerable arcs of circles. I pursued the investigation somewhat farther at the time, but on account of a pressure of work was compelled to drop it. Last year I again made some examinations which confirmed my previous observations, but declined calling special attention …