Compared to a sick human being, a diseased plant is a simple object. You can cut it into pieces, examine parts of it under a microscope and perform all sorts of experiments with it, without the need for physical precautions or compassion. In other respects, however, physicians who deal with human diseases have an easy life. ‘You physicians have only one species of patient, we phytopathologists have hundreds. Today we might be looking at a lily-of-the-valley, tomorrow an elm tree, the next day Java coffee,’ explains one of the phytopathologists in this book.

For almost a hundred years, the Willie Commelin Scholten Phytopathology Laboratory was the hub of phytopathology research in the Netherlands. Hundreds of students learned the principles of plant pathology there. The laboratory diagnosed and researched dozens of plant diseases, and its scientific reputation spread far beyond the country’s borders. In splendid isolation reconstructs the history of this unique institution, from its beginnings as a small private laboratory in the late nineteenth century to its final days as a renowned university research institute.