| William Gilson Farlow | |
| Birth Date: | 17 December 1844 |
| Birth Place: | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Nationality: | American |
| Field: | Botany |
William Gilson Farlow (December 17, 1844 – June 3, 1919) was an American botanist, born in Boston, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard (A.B., 1866; M.D., 1870), where, after several years of European study, he became adjunct professor of botany in 1874 and professor of cryptogamic botany in 1879.[1]
Farlow corresponded with Caroline Bingham and Jacob Georg Agardh collaborating in the identification and classification of species of algae previously unknown to science.[2]
Farlow was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1874.[3] In 1899 he was president of the American Society of Naturalists; in 1904 president of the National Academy of Sciences; in 1905 president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Philosophical Society; and in 1911 president of the Botanical Society of America.[4]
He received honorary degrees from Harvard University, the University of Glasgow (LL.D in 1901),[5] and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
He was known as the "father" of cryptogamic botany in the United States.[6] Among his students was the phytologist William Albert Setchell.[7]
Among his publications are:
With Charles Lewis Anderson and Daniel Cady Eaton he issued the exsiccata series Algae exsiccatae Americae Borealis (1877-1889).[8]