Born on February 23, 1863, near Sullivan, Ohio, Charles Joseph Chamberlain (Fig. 6.1) was educated at Oberlin College, Ohio, the oldest coeducational liberal arts college in the U.S.A., and at the University of Chicago, an institution that was to become the prominent feature of his life. He was the first recipient of a Ph.D. degree in Botany from the University, where he was appointed Associate Professor in 1911 and full Professor in 1915. He was instrumental in establishing glasshouses (Fig. 6.2) in Garfield Park in Chicago to house the cycads he brought back from his many field trips around the world.