born Nov. 9, 1874, Geneseo, N.Y., U.S.
died Nov. 16, 1954, Northampton, Mass.
U.S. botanist and geneticist.
He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. In his dissertation he became the first person to describe sexuality in the lower fungi. His later experimental work focused on higher plants. After a long tenure with the Carnegie Institution's Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (1915–41), he joined the faculty of Smith College, where he published a series of papers on the genetics and cell biology of jimsonweed. He used the alkaloid colchicine to achieve an increase in the number of chromosomes and thus opened up a new field of artificially produced polyploids.