Julius Sachs (1832 97) was an important and influential German botanist. He attended Charles University in Prague, gaining his doctorate in 1856. After appointments in Dresden, Chemnitz and Bonn, he took a professorship at the University of Freiburg in 1867. A year later he accepted a chair at Wurzburg, where he stayed for the rest of his career. Sachs made important contributions across botanical science, notably in cytology and photosynthesis. He was also largely responsible for the leap in understanding of plant physiology that took place in the second half of the nineteenth century. His...