Address of the President, Sir Frederick Hopkins, at the Anniversary Meeting, November 30, 1932

In accordance with pious custom I will begin my Address by recalling the losses that the Society has sustained during the year behind us. Twro of our Foreign Members have passed away and fourteen of our Fellows :— I will speak first of the former : Karl Ritter von Goebel. Von Goebel was supreme in the field of plant morphology, and played a leading part in guiding that branch of science on to modern lines. His influence was exerted in bringing the circumscribed and formal studies of morphology into closer contact with experiment and relating them with function. He gave to the subject a philosophical outlook. While a learned student of Form, he was also himself an experimentalist, and one less concerned with the construction of phylogenetic theories than with the study of causation. In illustration his experiments dealing with the effect of environment on symmetry may be quoted. His contributions to science were extensive and various, ranging in their date of publication from 1877 until near his death. His encyclopaedic book, “ Organographie der Pflanzen,” exerted a great influence upon the thought of others. Of von Goebel an informed writer has said that “ he leaves behind the memory of a gracious personality to whom the science of botany owes a supreme debt, not only as a great observer, but also as a safe guide to correct channels of thought.