36 REMINISCENCES OF 



familiar with its pages may be amused to learn that 

 most of my drawings were prepared at one end of 

 Mr. Weddell's kitchen-table, whilst the housekeeper 

 was occupied at the other end with the several pro- 

 cesses of providing the day's dinner. 



But this was not my only invitation into new 

 botanical work. Mr. Weddell had undertaken to 

 deliver lectures at the Mechanics' Institution on 

 vegetable physiology, and he asked me to prepare 

 for him a set of diagrams illustrating the subject. 

 My own knowledge was then too small to enable 

 me to do this without reading. At that time almost 

 the only popular English book on vegetable physi- 

 ology was Mrs. Marcett's "Conversations"; hence 

 it was to this elementary publication that I applied 

 myself. The result was the acquisition of a taste 

 which I never subsequently lost. 



A short holiday which my father and I devoted to 

 a geological excursion along the coast, between 

 Robin Hood's Bay and Skinningrave, produced also 

 permanent results. 



I knew fairly well the general features of the 

 ground over which we proposed to work, as well as 

 Smith's views respecting the identification of each 

 larger group of strata by means of the fossils which 

 it contained. 



Observations made during this excursion showed 

 me that Smith's generalisations did not embrace 

 all the facts of the case. Whilst working among 

 the beds of the Upper Lias, which on the York- 



