Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. 13 



experience of Rafinesque at Lexington, in Kentucky, 

 years afterward; the reader will then remember that all 

 about Marseilles, where Rafinesque had spent much of 

 his boyhood life, are to be found botanical gardens in 

 which he must often have been as student and collector. 



But the summer spent in plant -hunting and other 

 scientific work, very congenial to the disposition of 

 Rafinesque, had unfavorably disposed him toward a 

 business life. The irksome quiet of the office had 

 been relieved by a summer with the birds and flowers, 

 and to his duties he returned with laggard feet. Not 

 only did he not like the close confinement incident to 

 a clerkship, but it may even be supposed that the 

 emoluments of such a position in that early day were 

 certainly not in excess of those of the present time; 

 surely in such career those ever present dreams of wide 

 travel and learned books could never become fact. 



In 1804 Rafinesque resigned his position in favor of 

 his brother, of whom he makes no other mention for 

 all this time, and became secretary to a gentleman by 

 the name of Gernon. This position was also abandoned 

 early in the spring of the following year; the place was 

 one &quot;of no advantage&quot;, and then he could not withstand 

 the allurements of the forests and fields. His whole 

 time was now given to the collection of the plants and 



