"I put under the microscope a slide of sections through the developing pollen tubes, and there before my eyes was a dividing generative nucleus, with the largest and finest 'centrosomes' that mortal man had ever seen, at each polar end of the nucleus.   I almost literally hit the ceiling, and yelled for Swingle, who came rushing in thinking that the cyanide jar had broken…He looked, and then we both danced about almost shouting…"

      Thus Herbert John Webber described his reaction—after weeks of study—to the key step in the discovery of free-swimming sperm cells in a higher plant, the Zamia, the most dramatic aspect of a breakthrough in nineteenth century botanical research on reproduction which he was forever to consider the crowning triumph of his scientific career.
      That discovery illustrates two facets of Webber's character: skepticism and zest.   The discovery, which ran counter to accepted scientific belief of the period, was made in the face of cold disapproval from fellow botanists because Webber tenaciously refused to submit to views not grounded in experimental research.   And it was his zest—and eagerness to know more—that sustained him through repeated months of futile research effort.
      Herbert John Webber, one of America’s great pioneers in citrus research, was born on a farm in Lawton, Michigan, on December 27, 1865, and grew up on a prairie farm near Marshalltown, Iowa.   He determined at an early age to become a lawyer and in 1883 entered the University of Nebraska with that objective.
      His early college days were undistinguished until he took a part-time job in the university’s herbarium, where he came under the influence of the famed botanist, Dr. Charles E. Bessey.   Webber was often to recall that a chance remark he made to Bessey one afternoon led to an impromptu lecture that "marked an epoch in my life, never to be forgotten…I decided to study botany."
      Accompanied by a seasoned plainsman, Webber ranged through the wilds of northern Nebraska in 1889, collecting specimens for his first important publication, a catalogue of some 1,900 species of the flora of Nebraska.   That same year he received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Nebraska, followed by his Master’s in 1890.
      He began doctoral work at Washington University, St. Louis, but in 1892, as a result of his first meeting with his lifelong associate Walter T. Swingle, he broke off study to accept a position as special agent of the newly created Vegetable Pathology Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
      In a field laboratory at Eustis, Florida, Webber began the joint research with Swingle that was to continue over a period of half a century.   Out of their Florida years from 1892-97 came innumerable findings that were to stimulate the nation’s citrus industry and assist growers.   In the course of his citrus studies, Webber found time for the cytological research on the Zamia plant that led to his receiving the Ph.D. from Washington University in 1901—and an invitation to speak before the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
      In 1897, Webber’s headquarters were transferred to Washington, D.C., where he became physiologist in charge of the newly established laboratory of plant breeding.   While there he was one of the first men in this country to recognize the implications of the rediscovered work of Mendel.   His citrus research continued, but he also undertook work in cotton breeding, and the series of Webber cottons which have descended from his Columbia variety have become famous staple types.
      Accepting a call from Cornell University in 1907, Webber took over as head of the new department of experimental breeding, where he concentrated on breeding timothy and corn, one of his dent corn varieties still being extensively grown.   From 1909 to 1910 he served as acting director of the New York State College of Agriculture and Agricultural Experiment Station.
      In late 1912, Webber accepted the post of first director of the University of California Citrus Experiment Station (now the Citrus Research Center) and dean of the Graduate School of Tropical Agriculture.   He arrived in Riverside, California, in July, 1913, where he was instrumental in the final selection of a site and directed construction of buildings for the new institution.
      In establishing the station, Webber insisted that in matters of research it should have autonomy, and he was to apply this same concept to those working under him.   Dr. Leo J. Klotz, the plant pathologist, recalls Webber’s first words after his employment.   "Klotz, you can work on anything you want," he said, and then added, "But I hope you’ll work on something that helps the growers."   This philosophy of approach, a sound administrative policy, and a keen eye for selecting staff members of outstanding scientific talent were to set the tone of the Citrus Experiment Station and play an immeasurable role in establishing its present stature.
      In 1919, Webber became director of the California Agricultural Experiment Station, centered in Berkeley, but still retained general direction of the Citrus Experiment Station.   For a brief period from 1920 to 1921, he entered private industry to specialize in cotton breeding.   But in October, 1921, he returned to the University of California as professor of subtropical horticulture and directory of the Citrus Experiment Station.   From then until 1926, his headquarters were established in Berkeley, and during the period of 1923-24 he served as acting dean and director of the College of Agriculture.   In 1925, at the request of the South African government, Webber made a study of that country's citrus problems that led to the establishment of the Subtropical Horticultural Experiment Station at Nelspruit.
      In 1926, Webber again moved to Riverside to be more closely in touch with the Citrus Experiment Station, where he continued as director until 1929, when he retired to devote more time to research, much of it in these later years centering around the guava.   In 1936, he retired from active service with the university.
      Dr. Webber was the author of more than 300 monographs and papers from 1886 to 1946.   He was a contributor to Bailey’s Cyclopedia of American Horticulture and served as agricultural editor for Funk and Wagnall’s New Standard Dictionary.   In the final years of his long, productive life, his citrus work culminated in the publication of the first edition of The Citrus Industry, which he edited with Dr. L. D. Batchelor and to which he contributed four chapters in Volume I and three chapters in Volume II.   These volumes, which became the "Bible of the citrus industry," have had a worldwide influence on citrus culture and have contributed greatly to the preeminent reputation of the University of California Citrus Research Center and Agricultural Experiment Station.

   "To be told when and where he was born, at Canaan, Pennsylvania, in 1871, and when and where he died, January 1952, in Washington, D.C., is of less importance than to know that he lived and inspired more agricultural botanists than any one other man." —William Seifriz

      In 1892, a young plant pathologist from the U.S. Department of Agriculture set out for Eustis, Florida, to determine what was ailing Mrs. Tom Platt’s orange trees.   In a postcard to a colleague in Washington, D.C., he wrote that an orange tree looked "something like an oak with bright yellow fruits hanging from its branches."
      This was perhaps the most ingenuous remark ever made about citrus by Walter Tennyson Swingle, who legend insists emerged from his first entry into a citrus grove with the Minneola tangelo.   Almost immediately, Swingle established a laboratory at Eustis, and started hybridizing all the kinds of citrus then known.   During the next five years, Swingle and his associate, Dr. Herbert John Webber, conducted much of the pioneer research that forms the foundation of our present knowledge of citrus.   In their numerous bulletins and papers of this period, many citrus diseases are first named and described; from their hybridization studies came such new groups of citrus as tangelos (including the Minneola) and citranges.
      Walter T. Swingle was born on a farm in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, on January 8, 1871, and received his early schooling at home.   His first scientific paper—on rust of cereals—was delivered at the age of sixteen before a college scientific society.   In 1890, he was awarded the Bachelor of Science degree from Kansas State Agricultural College, followed by the Master of Science degree in 1896, and the Doctor of Science degree in 1922.   He studied with Strasburger at the University of Bonn in 1895-96, and spent a year with Pffeffer at the University of Leipzig in 1897, thereafter throughout his life maintaining contact with European thought and research.
      In 1891, he joined the newly formed Division of Vegetable Pathology of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, concentrating on the pathology and breeding of citrus until 1898, when he became an agricultural explorer for the department, making many trips to study agriculture and botany in southern Europe, North Africa, the Near East, China, Japan and the Philippines.   Incident to these travels, he introduced a wealth of citrus species, varieties, and relatives to the United States.
      During his first year in the new post, Swingle introduced the fig insect (Blastophaga) from Algeria to California, rendering possible the successful culture of figs of the Smyrna type.   An 1899 attempt to introduce date culture to the United States failed, but in 1900 Swingle returned to Algeria and from French plantations secured 405 offshoots of the Deglet Noor and Rhars varieties.   In cooperation with the Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station, they were successfully introduced at Tempe, Arizona.   Under Swingle’s direction, the U.S. Date Garden at Indio, California, a center of date research from then on, was established in 1907.   An outgrowth of this period was the publication of his classical work on the culture of the date.
      Later, as head of the Office of Crop Physiology and Breeding Investigation, Dr. Swingle took charge of federal research on citrus, dates, and other subtropical fruits.   He saw the applicability of every branch of science that might throw light on biological problems.   His energy was phenomenal, his enthusiasm boundless, and it was never possible for his staff to carry out all his suggestions.   Even in his vast worldwide correspondence with other scientists, he was forever presenting new aspects of problems they had overlooked.   His visionary ideas stimulated a whole generation of botanists, physiologists, and subtropical horticulturists.
      Dr. Swingle was responsible for introducing many new crop plants in the United States, including alkaloid-yielding species of Ephedra and tung, the source of oil used in varnish.   He first proposed the technique for "rejuvenating" citrus varieties by growing nucellar seedlings.   This technique was used to produce most of the vigorous, virus-free nucellar clones of commercial citrus varieties now being planted throughout the principal citrus-growing regions of the world.   He was the first to call attention to the threat of the tristeza virus in this country.   He invented improvements for the microscope, contributed to a better understanding of cell structure in plants, expanded the ecological knowledge of the American southwest, and advanced the usage of ultraviolet photography.
      Merely incidental to his major works was an undertaking that might have occupied the lifetime of an average scholar.   While in China, his efforts resulted in the Library of Congress acquiring over 100,000 volumes of Chinese works, the richest collection outside the Orient.
      In 1941, Dr. Swingle retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, becoming a consultant on tropical botany at the University of Miami.   In 1943, Swingle's half-century of pioneer labor on citrus was climaxed by the publication of The Botany of Citrus and Its Wild Relatives of the Orange Subfamily, which is the revised Chapter 3 of this volume.   It was the first attempt in taxonomic botany to get together all the information regarding a single cultivated species—and even now, more than two decades later, it remains a monumental work, characterized throughout by the style and enthusiasms of its author.