American Botanist
1845-1915

Charles Edwin Bessey was a late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American botanist who developed a modern classification system for flowering plants. Born in Ohio in 1845 the son of a school teacher, Bessey was educated at home and in small rural schools. He was able to attend the Michigan Agricultural College, where he was introduced to botany. After graduation, he helped to initiate the botany program at the Iowa Agricultural College, and began teaching students. He made advances in botany education by adding a laboratory component to his classes. He used his one microscope initially to teach his students during laboratory. Later, as he helped to start botany programs at other state colleges in the American west, he introduced microscope techniques to botany classes there as well.

In 1872 Bessey worked at Harvard in American botanist Asa Gray's (1810-1888) laboratory and became more interested in...