The Days of a Man 1872 



of half a lifetime in California. Several of my under- 

 graduate intimates became my associates and co- 

 workers for more than a quarter of a century. In 

 retrospect, our doings at "the Grove/' in the forests 

 and the gorges about Ithaca, crowd on my mind so 

 that I might go on indefinitely with incidents dear 

 to memory. Somewhere, however, a stop has to be 

 made, and I must pick my way out into the cold 

 world. But while closing this recital of student days, 

 I shall here venture to anticipate some of my other 

 relations to Alma Mater. 



Entering the university in March, 1869, as a 

 belated freshman, I was able in June to pass all the 

 prescribed first-year work except that in Physiology, 

 which I had never studied, so that upon my 

 return the next fall I was admitted as a regular 

 member of the sophomore class. During the three 

 years which followed I completed all requirements 

 for the degree of Bachelor of Science, besides about 

 two years of advanced work in Botany. Taking 

 this last into consideration, the faculty conferred 

 on me at graduation in June, 1872, the advanced 

 Master degree of Master of Science instead of the con- 

 / ventional Bachelor's Degree received by the rest of 

 ^ c j asg -phis seemed to me at the time a perfectly 

 natural thing, as I had done all the required work 

 for the higher honor; but it was afterward voted 

 not to grant any second degree within a year after 

 that of Bachelor had been received. I was thus 

 placed, quite innocently, in the position of being 

 the only graduate of Cornell to merge two degrees 

 into one. 



My Master's thesis, "The Wild Flowers of Wyo- 

 ming County," to which I have previously referred, 



C 96 3 



