20 MEMOIR OF 



house of his uncle, Henry Schomburgk, in Leipsic, 

 and having there better opportunities of making 

 himself acquainted with the science of botany, he 

 not only attended the lectures of Professor Schwa- 

 grichere, but also received private instructions, Vv^hile 

 every facility was offered to him to visit the col- 

 lections of living plants, for which that city was 

 then famed. An ardent desire to travel became 

 equally apparent, as naturally resulting from his 

 particular line of studies ; excursions were made to 

 many parts of Hesse and the Rhine, journeys 

 were also undertaken to the Hartz and distant 

 parts of Thuringia, and resulting from these, seve- 

 ral botanical and horticultural observations were 

 communicated, under the name of Robert Her- 

 mann, to the Bavarian Garten Zeitung, Thuringer 

 Vater-lands Kunde. But although his uncle was 

 kind and indulgent, he, nevertheless, did not ap- 

 prove of his following the study of botany with 

 more ardour than that of commercial accounts, 

 and it is related that the worthy man gave up all 

 hopes that his nephew would ever shine as a mer- 

 chant, when, upon entering his room, he discovered, 

 to his surprise and mortification, that the ledgers 

 and other mercantile books were used to press and 

 to prepare plants for the Herbarium. 



He became now anxious to extend his excursions 

 beyond the limits of Europe, but promises made to 

 his parents prevented their immediate execution. In 

 1827 be was deprived of the care of a mother's watch- 

 fulness, and in the year following, an opportunity 



