Icones Farlowianae (1929)

1929
Another excellent example of lithographic printing.
Plate: Plates 58 Cortinarious (Inoloma) violaceus
and Clavaria cinerea
and Plate 22 Plearotus petaloides [heliotype]

Farlow, W. G. (William Gilson), 1844-1919.
Icones Farlowianae : illustrations of the larger Fungi of eastern North America

[ Cambridge, Mass. : The Farlow Library and Herbarium of Harvard University, 1929 (Boston : Merrymount Press)]

Image Courtesy of the Farlow Library of Cryptogamic Botany

'William Gilson Farlow was born near Boston, Massachusetts on December 17, 1844. He received his M.D. from Harvard in May of 1870. In July of the same year Farlow was hired to assist Asa Gray, Fisher Professor of Natural History, a position he held for two years.

In 1872 he traveled to Europe, where he studied for two years with Anton de Bary as well as other prominent botanists in Germany, France and Scandinavia. When he returned in 1874 he was made Assistant Professor of Botany at the Bussey Institution of Harvard University. In 1879 Farlow was appointed Professor of Cryptogamic Botany at Harvard. He remained in this position for the rest of his life and continued to advise doctoral candidates even after his retirement from active teaching in 1896.

Farlow's contributions to botany were acknowledged internationally. At least two genera and many species have been named for Farlow. He will be remembered as a pioneer investigator in plant pathology, who helped establish a systematic nomenclature for fungi, and inspired and directed some of America's leading botanists. It was said that "His firsthand knowledge of cryptograms was greater than that of any botanist and he was probably the most learned man in his profession".