American mycologist William Farlow worked for Harvard University and also studied ferns and algae. Born in Boston he moved to Newton, Massachusetts, with his family aged 14 and soon afterwards entered Harvard University. Here he became firm friends with Asa Gray and thus entered into the world of plant sciences. Gray advised him to study medicine if he was interested in botany, but although he graduated in this field in 1870, Farlow never practised, instead becoming Gray's assistant at Harvard. His interests lay firmly in the cryptogamic plants, particularly algae, but he soon realised that this required further training which he was unable to gain in the United States. Therefore, in 1872 Farlow took an extended trip to Europe, visiting academics and institutions in England, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Russia, but spent the majority of his two years abroad in Strasburg, Germany, where he studied under the great cryptogamist Anton De Bary.

Although his first papers were on algae and ferns, Farlow became ever more interested in fungi and on his return was stationed at Harvard's agricultural station (the Bussey Institution) where he took up the study of mycology and plant pathology. From 1879 he worked as professor of cryptogamic botany at Harvard and over the 40 years that followed he became known as one of the foremost systematic mycologists in the States. Farlow's publications in this field were numerous and his A Bibliographic Index to North American Fungi appeared in 1905, but he also produced many phytological papers as well as works on lichen, pathology and botanical history.

Farlow was the founder and first president (1896) of the New England Botanical Club (NEBC), president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1906) and co-editor of the Annals of Botany for 20 years. For his contributions he was awarded the degree of LLD by the Universities of Harvard, Wisconsin and Glasgow and a PhD from the University of Uppsala. The herbarium of the Bussey Institution (FH), in which his collection was deposited, is now named after him as is the genus Farlowia J.G. Agardh and the journal of the same name, published by the Farlow Library and Herbarium.

Sources:
A.F. Blakeslee, R. Thaxter and W. Trelease, 1920, "William Gilson Farlow", American Journal of Botany, 7(5): 173-181
H.B. Humphrey, 1961, The Makers of North American Botany: 83-85
E.M.Wakefield, 1919, "William Gilson Farlow", Kew Bulletin, 1919: 388-390.