Prof. Adolf Engler

Abstract

THE death of Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler, aptly described as the Altmeister of systematic botanists, on Oct. 10, in his eighty-seventh year, removes a prominent and striking personality from the botanical world. ‘Engler's System’ is a phrase familiar to all students of the science, and has been in recent years a subject of warm discussion among those interested in phylogeny and more especially in the ‘natural’ arrangement of the families of flowering plants. In his student days, Engler came under the influence of the great German systematist Eichler, whose ‘System’ was a definite attempt to arrange plant-families in series advancing from the more primitive to the more highly specialised; the simplest type of flower was regarded as the earliest and advance implied an increase in number of parts and specialisation of structure. Engler's ‘Syllabus’, which was a modification of Eichler's system, has been widely used in systematic works and a large proportion of Continental and American ‘floras’ follows his arrangement. The criterion of primitive-ness has been challenged by the school which regards the simplest types of flowers to be reduced and not primitive forms, but in the recently published edition of his ‘Syllabus’ the veteran botanist vigorously defends his position and suggests that the less-known parts of the African continent may conceal forms which will provide links in support of his theory.