1848-1935

Dutch Botanist

Hugo Marie de Vries was a Dutch botanist whose work with plant species led him to rediscover Gregor Mendel's theories of heredity, and brought his concept of mutation into evolutionary theory.

De Vries was born in Haarlem, the Netherlands, on February 16, 1848. He became interested in botany, the study of plants, at an early age. In 1870, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Leiden, then continued his studies at the University of Heidelberg, where he was fortunate enough to work with noted German plant physiologist Julius von Sachs (1832-1897). He continued his research on the physiology of plant cells while serving as professor at the University of Amsterdam in 1878, a position he held until 1918.

By the late 1880s, controversy was mounting over the application of evolutionary theory to plant heredity. In 1886, while conducting experiments involving the hybridization, or...