4 LIFE OF FLOWER 



early years and continued unabated till the close of his 

 career. That career naturally divides into three epochs. 

 Firstly, the period of boyhood and early manhood ; 

 secondly, the long period of official life at the museum 

 of the Royal College of Surgeons ; and thirdly, the 

 time during which the subject of this memoir occupied 

 the post of Director of the Natural History Branch 

 of the British Museum, together with the short interval 

 which elapsed between his resignation of that position 

 and his untimely death. To each of the latter periods 

 a separate chapter is devoted. It has, however, 

 been found convenient, instead of restricting the present 

 chapter to the first epoch, to include within its limits 

 a general sketch of Flower's whole life. A fourth 

 chapter is assigned to the period during which he was 

 President of the Zoological Society of London, although 

 this was synchronous with part of the period covered 

 by the second, and with the whole of that treated of 

 in the third chapter. Finally, the full description 

 of his scientific work is reserved for subsequent 

 chapters. 



According to information kindly furnished by his 

 widow, Lady Flower, delicate health prevented William 

 Flower from being much at school during his boyhood, 

 and he was thus largely dependent upon his mother a 

 sensible and well-read woman for his early education. 

 He was also in the habit of accompanying his father in 

 his rides, whereby he became much interested in all 

 that concerns horses and their well-being. Best of all, 

 as regards opportunity for developing a love of animal 

 life, he was in the habit of taking long, solitary rambles 

 in the country, thereby acquiring a knowledge of Nature 



