CROCKER, WILLIAM ), American botanist, was born at Medina, O., on Jan. 27, 1876. He graduated at the Illinois State normal university in 1898, at the University of Illinois in 1902, and received in 1906 the degree of doctor of philosophy from the University of Chicago, in which he was suc cessively associate, instructor, assistant professor and associate professor of plant physiology until 1921 when he was made direc tor of the Boyce Thompson institute for plant research at Yon kers, New York. He has made important investigations on the germination of seeds and on the effect of poisonous and stimu lative materials on plants.