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botany.
589-
tended outside the boundaries of the country. In the numerous Arctic
expeditions sent out since 1837, botanists have almost always participated, for the
purpose of studying both the composition of the vegetation and biological
peculiarities; among others may be named Th. M, Fries, S. Berg gren, A. G.
Nathorst (b. 1850), and F. R. Kjelhnan; the last-named in particular has made
important observations on the subject of the conditions of vegetable life in the
polar night and under low temperatures; among the younger botanists we may
mention G. Andersson (b. 18 6 5), 77. Hesselman (b. 1874), Th. Wulff (b. 1877),
and H. Simmons (b. 1866). The Antarctic vegetation has been investigated by
C. Skottsberg (b. 1880), who has also studied the vegetation of the most
southern parts of South America. The tropical and sub-tropical vegetation of South
America has further been studied by P. Dusen (b. 1855) and Rob. Fries, and
above all by C. A. M. Lindman (b. 1856) and G. A:son Mal me, who, with the
support of generous donations made by the Swedish doctor A. F. Regnell (1807
—84), residing in Brazil, have carried out botanical research in the south of
that country.
Botanical geography, which had been at a standstill since the time of Wahlenberg,
received a new starting-point — that implied by the theory of historical
evolution — by A. G. Nathorst’s discovery in 1870 of a glacial flora of dwarf
birches, the polar willow, Dryas etc. in the fresh water clays of Skåne.
This beginning has since been followed up, partly by Nathorst himself and
partly by other scientists, such as G. Andersson, R. Sernander (b. 1866),
and others. Through the study of vegetable remains in clays, river sand
deposits, peat mosses, and of impressions of leaves in lime tufa, the sequence of
migration of a great number of plants has been ascertained, and by comparing
the botanical observations with the geological study of the geographical
development of Scandinavia during the post-tertiarv period, scientists have arrived at
the splendid result that the principal features of the development of vegetation
since the glacial period are known. Other investigations in botanical geography,
with special reference to the composition and biology of communities of plants,
have been carried out. by H. ron Post (1822—1911), R. Sernander, Alb.
Nils-son (1860—1906), S. G. Birger (b. 1879), G. Samuelsson (b. 1885), G.
Andersson, H. Hesselman, etc.
As will be seen from the above, classification and description of species were
for a long time the principal aims of Swedish botanical research. The reason
for this is doubtless to be found in the great influence of Linnæus. Other
branches, with the exception of botanical geography, were comparatively låte in
playing the same part as systematization, but development in recent times has
been rapid and it can now be said that Swedish botanical research comprises
all branches of the science. Even K. A. Agardh carried out anatomical and
morphological investigations, but the appreciation of what he observed is
clouded by speculations of natural philosophy. The first Swedish botanical
anatomist, in the modern sense of the word, is F. 1". K. Areschoug, who, by means
of his investigations, has striven to prove a connection between the construction
of plants and external conditions, and who created a very numerous special
school at the Lund University, the leading spirit of which was B. Jönsson
(1849—1911). In quite recent times, cellular anatomy, or histology, together
with embryology have found many students in Sweden, such as 0. Juel, O.
Rosenberg (b. 1872), S. Murbeck and II. Lundegårdh (b. 1888), together with
several others.
Physiology also occupies an independent position, especially at the University
of Lund, and is represented among others by B. Jönsson and B. Lidforss (1868
—1913). Modern research on the subject of heredity, which has received its
present form through De Vries’ theory of mutation and Mendel’s laws, has been
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