Edgar Shannon Anderson

It's the anniversary of the 1969 death of Edgar Shannon Anderson. 
 
Anderson was an American botanist and his 1949 book Introgressive Hybridization was a major step forward in botanical genetics.
 
While he was at Harvard, Anderson went on to work at the Bussey Institute; a biological arm of the University.
 
It was there that he met Dorothy Moore, a fellow botanist.  Dorothy was always by his side; going on hikes and collecting plant specimens. They were married in 1923.
 
Anderson became the director of the Missouri Botanical Garden. After three years of administrative work, he went back to his passions of teaching and research.
 
In 1952, Anderson published Plants, Man and Life.
 
In the book, Anderson shared his methods of research and his perspective on life. It is a favorite among botanists. It contains not only scientific knowledge, but also folklore, some of Anderson's insight on early herbalists, and a little bit of philosophy.
 
There's a charming account of Leonard Fuchs, a German physician and botanist.
 
When Anderson wrote about him, he said,

"He was a big, broad-shouldered Henry VIII sort of man; with handsome clothes and a general air of getting things done."