The Professor: Ajaccio 



disc of glorious Nature," everything stimu- 

 lated the alert curiosity of the predestined 

 biologist; the sea, full of marvels, the beach, 

 where the waves threw up such beautiful 

 shells, the maquis of myrtle, arbutus, and len- 

 tisk! . . . This time the temptation was too 

 great! He surrendered. His leisure was di- 

 vided into two parts. One was still devoted 

 to mathematics, the basis of his future in the 

 university. The other was already spent in 

 botanising and in investigating the wonders 

 of the sea. 



What a country! What magnificent investiga- 

 tions to be made! If I had not been obsessed by 

 x and y I should have surrendered wholly to my 

 inclinations! 



Meanwhile Ajaccio received the visit of a fa- 

 mous Avignon botanist, Requien * by name, who, 

 with a box crammed with paper under his arm, 

 had long been botanising all over Corsica, press- 

 ing and drying specimens and distributing them 

 to his friends. We soon became acquainted. I 

 accompanied him in my free time on his explora- 

 tions, and never did the master have a more atten- 

 tive disciple. To tell the truth, Requien was not 

 a man of learning so much as an enthusiastic col- 



1 Esprit Requien (1788-1851), a French naturalist and 

 collector, director of the museum and botanical gardens 

 at Avignon and author of several works on botany and 

 conchology. A. T. DE M. 



119 



