The emerging field of plant physiology - continued...

V.
Some fifteen years after the foundation of the society Link and Julius Ferdinand Meyen (1804-1840) started to edit a series on the various accumulating works of physiological research in the fields of botany. Meyen had made his entrance into the scientific world with his work Phytotomie (1830), and had also dedicated his Plant physiology (1837-1839) to Link as Link in his view had to be considered as the "founder of plant physiology" in German botany. Next to Link he reported many new findings and results of the field he was working in at the society's meetings.

The introduction to the first volume of the Jahresberichte (1838, p. 1), which most likely was composed by Meyen, almost casually reported of the outstanding success physiological research in the various botanical disciplines had experienced in the past which necessitated a series in which all of these works were collected and brought to the audience of its many researchers.

Meyen in his brief introduction also emphasised that much of this research was concerned with morphological and anatomical enquiries. Thus it did not differ too explicitely from the botanical research implemented in the decades before. Rather, it was regarded as a continuation of the works already done which also explains why the works of Schleiden, even though considered to be of assumptive character, had been among those presented most often. Given the amassment of material, the overall active participation and thus the provision of the most secure foundations the field was progressively advancing into a bright future.