Charles Edwin Bessey

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Charles Edwin Bessey
Charles Edwin Bessey
Charles Edwin Bessey
Born 1 May 1845
Milton, Ohio
Died 25 Feb 1915
Nationality American
Fields botanist
Institutions Iowa Agricultural College
Alma mater Michigan Agricultural College
Doctoral advisor Asa Gray

Charles Edwin Bessey (1845-1915) was an American botanist, born at Milton, Ohio. He graduated in 1869 at the Michigan Agricultural College, studied at Harvard under Asa Gray, in 1872 and in 1875-76. He was professor of botany at the Iowa Agricultural College from 1870 to 1884. In 1884, he was appointed professor of botany at the University of Nebraska and became head dean there in 1909. He served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1911. He published:

  • The Geography of Iowa (1876)
  • Botany for High Schools and Colleges (1880)
  • The Essentials of Botany (1884)
  • Elementary Botany (1904)
  • Plant Migration Studies (1905)
  • Synopsis of Plant Phyla (1907)
  • Outlines of Plant Phyla (1909)
  • written with others, New Elementary Agriculture (ninth edition, 1911)

His arrangement of flowering plants taxa, with focus on the evolutionary divergence of primitive forms, is considered by many as the system most likely to form the basis of a modern, comprehensive taxonomy of the plant kingdom.

In 2007 he was inducted to the Nebraska Hall of Fame.

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

  • Ewan, Joseph (1970-80). "Bessey, Charles Edwin". Dictionary of Scientific Biography 2. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 102-104. ISBN 0684101149. 
  • Overfield, Richard A. Science With Practice: Charles E. Bessey and the Maturing of American Botany. Iowa State University Press Series in the History of Technology and Science. Iowa State Press, 1993. (ISBN 0-8138-1822-2)
  • Pool, Raymond J. A brief sketch of the life and work of Charles Edwin Bessey. Botanical Society of America, 1915.
  • Tobey, Ronald C. 1981. Saving the Prairies: The Life Cycle of the Founding School of American Plant Ecology, 1895-1955. Berkeley: University of California Press. (ISBN 0-5200-4352-9)
The standard author abbreviation Bessey is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.[1]

This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.

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