EARLY TRAINING 179 



fate allowed him, attain that insight into more correct com- 

 parison of the plants whose morphology he studied which would 

 have acted quickly on the mass of first hand observation he 

 possessed. 



It is well to be clear at the outset that it is the personality 

 of William Griffith, his important detailed contributions to 

 botany, and his achievement as a great working morphologist 

 of his time that will interest us to-day rather than his general 

 views or any influence of these on the progress of botany. 

 Griffith had the advantage or disadvantage of botany being 

 his private study and not his profession. The motive force 

 of his career was however his love of scientific work for its 

 own sake. 



William Griffith was a London botanist. He was the son 

 of a London merchant, born on March 4, 1810, at Ham 

 Common. Having finished school he began to prepare for the 

 medical profession and was apprenticed to a surgeon in the 

 West end of London. About 1829 he commenced attendance 

 at the classes in the newly established University College. He 

 had earlier in life shown an interest in natural history but 

 was now specially devoted to botany. He attended Lindley's 

 lectures, and also studied medical botany under Mr Anderson 

 at the Apothecaries' Garden in Chelsea. There he obtained 

 the Linnean Gold Medal given by the Society of Apothecaries. 

 At this time also he was a frequent visitor to Kew Gardens 

 where he was on good terms with the head gardener and also 

 came under the influence of Mr Bauer the great botanical 

 draughtsman of his day. Griffith was never tired of expressing 

 his admiration for Bauer as an accurate observer. During his 

 vacations Griffith made botanical excursions in England, carrying 

 his light baggage and his equipment for collecting plants. 



That the training that Griffith received in botany in the 

 London University of that date was a sound one is shown by 

 his power of facing the most various problems when cast on 

 his own resources immediately at the close of his University 

 training. The soundness of his training is further shown by the 

 small pieces of original work he had published before leaving 

 England at the age of 22. Not only had he made some of the 



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