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Page 13 · DO #2669 · 48_20th%20Century%20Botanists_Bx4FF43r
- Collection
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Twentieth Century Botanists correspondence and other materials
- Item/Folder
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Ray, W.W. Misc. A - B, 1945–1963
- Digital Object
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DO #2669,
page 13
- Collection-level dates
- 1873–1970
Page transcription
-3-
a report of the Agricultural College (No. 17, pages 89-127) he published a paper entitled Contribution to the Iowa Flora. This was based mainly upon his own collections, assisted by J. C. Arthur, and with the cooperation of four other interested persons in different portions of the state. His added burden of Entomology compelled him to devote much time for several years to studies on the insects of Iowa, particularly on those that were harmful to plants. This burden became less by the aid of a young student, Herbert Osborn, who eventually became Professor of Entomology. In the 1873 and 1874 Reports of the Iowa State Agricultural Society are published Professor Bessey's Reports on Insects.
As time went on Professor Bessey became more and more interested in the diseases of plants. In the Agricultural College Report printed in 1877 appeared his paper entitled "On Injurious Fungi. The Blights (Erysiphe)". Several other botanical papers, partly of physiological nature were published in the Transactions of the Iowa Horticultural Society in the years before and after 1880. One of these papers in the 1883 number is entitled "The Diseases of Plants" and may well be the first pathological paper from the College.
With the erection in 1880 of North Hall the Botanical Department was removed from the Main Hall and given much more commodious quarters. In a note by him concerning this event, in the March, 1881, number of the American Naturalist it is stated that "A large lecture-room is supplemented by a laboratory adjacent to it. The latter is constructed with north and east windows for microscope work. A third room of ample size is set aside for the herbarium and cabinet."
In 1880 he accepted the task as botanical editor for the American Naturalist to which he had contributed a number of short papers in the preceding years. He prepared monthly notes for that journal for quite a number of years beyond his years of service at Iowa Agricultural College. Feeling the need in Iowa of such
