100 TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE [Sess. lvui. 



September 181-7, and was the son of Pdchard Spruce the 

 highly esteemed and efficient schoolmaster at Ganthorpe, 

 and afterwards at the neighbouring village of Welburn. 

 His mother's maiden name was Etty, a relative of William 

 Etty the eminent artist and Eoyal Academician. 



At Ganthorpe he spent his early life, and when quite a 

 child he showed great aptitude for learning, and at an 

 early age developed a great love of nature. Amongst his 

 earliest amusements was the making of lists of plants, and 

 he had also a great liking for astronomy, which was of 

 use to him in after years. He commenced the study of 

 classics with an old schoolmaster of the name of Langdale, 

 who had originally been designed for the priesthood, and 

 whose scholarship his distinguished pupil always spoke of 

 most highly. When a little older he became a tutor for a 

 short time in a private school at Haxby, near York, and 

 about the beginning of 1840, was mathematical master at 

 the York Collegiate School, which position he filled for five 

 years. 



To trace his botanical career it will be necessary to go 

 back a little. The writer of this memoir possesses a 

 neatly written manuscript list, made by Spruce and dated 

 April 1834, of plants found by him mostly within a short 

 radius of Ganthorpe. It comprises 403 species alpha- 

 betically arranged. The first page contains a list of 

 abbreviations used in giving localities to the plants, and on 

 the last page is a tabulated summary. This was drawn up 

 when he was sixteen years of age, and most of the records 

 must have been made before he was sixteen. Three years 

 later he drew up the " List of the Flora of the Malton 

 District," the manuscript of which is now in the hands of 

 Mr. M. B. Slater. In it are enumerated 485 species 

 arranged alphabetically, with habitats 



The next stage in his botanical career was the com- 

 mencement of his study of mosses and hepaticfe, which 

 dates from the time he went to York in 1840. For a 

 time, whilst at York, he applied himself severely to the 

 special study of mathematics, and some of his friends 

 suggested that he should enter the church, but he preferred 

 to become " a priest of science," as the great Von Martins, 

 his " very attached friend and admirer," designated him in 



