56 SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER 
as early as it was light—sometimes in winter even 
by moonlight—hunting for specimens, and seldom 
returned without something curious or interesting 
to lay on the breakfast-table for the instruction 
and entertainment of his family. 
It was at this period, that he resolved on im- 
proving his knowledge of the grasses, a tribe of 
plants to which he had not before paid much atten- 
tion. His fondness for minute observation appears 
from the nature of the objects which he peculiarly 
selected for study. Cryptogamic botany had 
remarkable attractions for him; and his interest in 
it was quickened by a fasciculus of dried specimens 
from the neighbourhood of Oxford, lent him by the 
Rev. J. M. Luxmoore. The fungi engaged a large 
share of his attention. His quick eye discovered 
a metallic lustre on a very diminutive species of 
moss, seen only under a particular incidence of 
the rays of light, amidst the twilight gloom of 
excavated rocks. The minutest specimens of the 
insect tribe, the threads of the gossamer spider, 
and animalcule—the wonders of nature in her 
most hidden recesses—invited the scrutiny of his 
exploring mind ; aud in these researches he was 
constantly aided by the microscope, which became 
his favourite instrument of investigation. The 
