“ A work on the course of morphological differentiation in the Sphacelariaceae (1873) , a family of marine algae, is of great interest, inasmuch as it treats of evolutionary questions; the authors point of view is that of Naegeli (1817–1891) rather than Darwin. Closely connected with Pringsheim’s algological work was his long-continued investigation of the Saprolegniaceae, a family of algoid fungi, some of which have become notorious as the causes of disease in fish. ”

“ His career as a morphologist culminated in 1876 with the publication of a memoir on the alternation of generations in thallophytes and mosses. From 1874 to the close of his life Pringsheim’s activity was chiefly directed to physiological questions: he published, in a long series of memoirs, a theory of the carbon-assimilation of green plants, the central point of which is the conception of the chlorophyll-pigment as a screen, with the main function of protecting the protoplasm from light-rays which would neutralize its assimilative activity by stimulating too active respiration. ”