the late Dr. Pultenejf, 297 



that is, from about the 30th to the 32d year of his age; 

 during which time I was a boarder in his houfe, for the fake 

 of his inllruftion in pharmacy and botany, as a preparation 

 for my medical ftudies at the univcrfity. 



He was born at or in the neighbourhood of Loughborough, 

 was much at Hathern, with his uncle Mr. George Tomlinlon 

 of that place j and fervcd an apprenticed! ip at Loughborough 

 to an apothecary, whom I well knew in my youth, of the 

 name of Harris; a man of fome humour, but of fmall abili- 

 ties in his profeffion, from whom he derived little information 

 but in the common procefles of pharmacy : for every thing 

 more than this, he was indebted to his own genius and in- 

 duitry, 



A tafte for botany he imbibed almoft in his infancy, from 

 his uncle Tomlinfon, who was a botaniil of the old fchool. 



His firft attention to this purfuit was merely the efie6l of 

 imitation. Seeing his uncle fcarching fur plants, as they 

 walked together in the fields; feeing him take them home, 

 examine them by the defcriptions of Gerard and Kay, at that 

 time the fole, or at leaft the beft, and certainly the only good 

 guides in Englifli botany, and compare them with the rude 

 wooden cuts of the former ; difplay fome of them upon paper, 

 prefs and dry them, and fit them for a place in his Hortiis 

 Siccus ihc began to do the fame, to aflc his uncle the names 

 of pla^S to make imitative collections, to draw up infantile 

 catalogues and defcriptions of the plants which he found 

 w ithin the circle of his botanical cxcurfions and refearches ; 

 and fomctimes he added figures of fuch as he admired for 

 their beauty, or efteemed for their rarity. 



How early he was a botanift appears from what he fays 

 under the article Ca7npanula f alula in his " Catalogue of 

 fome of the more rare Plants found in the Neighbou°hood 

 of Leicefter, Loughborough, and in Charley Foreft," in- 

 fertcd in the introductory part of the firft volume of Mr. Ni- 

 chols's Hiftory of Leicellerfhirc, at p. clxxvii., where he has 

 this note: — " In the drier parts of Buddon Wood, and the 

 hedges and lanes adjoining, Firft difcovered in England by 

 Mr. Brewer, in 1726, near Worcefter, as recorded by Dr. 

 Dillcnius. Next in this place (Buddon Wood) by the writer 

 of tills catalogue, in 1742, who a few years afterwards com- 

 municated the feeds to the gardens of Chelfea and the Britifh 

 Mufaeuni *." 



Of 



• I.ft me here obfcrvcthnt I have found the Campanula paltilahnwccn 

 the fourth and fifth miltftoncs, under the hedge, on the left fide of the 

 old carritr't road from Biimii)j^hnm to Coventry ; and liavc oblerved it 



there, 



