OUR BRITISH SNAILS 



It has been said that a child's edjcation should 

 begin thirty years before its birth, since what he is, 

 or becomes, or does, depends largely upon what 

 his parents were, and not solely on what he learns 

 at home or in school, or from his companions 

 and surroundings. 



But the principle of what is called " atavism " 

 shows us that the appearance, tastes, and charac- 

 ter of a child's grandparents may reappear, even 

 more than those of his parents ; and that, there- 

 fore, his education begins sixty years before his 

 birth. 



My education, viewing me as a naturalist, began 

 even earlier than that, for nearly all my ancestors 

 of whom I know anything more than their names 

 and abiding place were botanists or horticul- 

 turists, and I cannot recollect the time when I 

 was not an observer of nature and a collector of 

 the common objects of the field, the ditch, the 

 seashore, the wood, and the cliff. My father 

 died before I was four, and I have never had any 

 remembrance of his words or looks, yet I remember 



