AN EXTRAORDINARY YOUTH. 15 



leaves, and fruit, was placed in a phial holding 

 about six ounces of alcohol." The fruit is annually 

 collected and preserved, being used as a sauce with 

 meat and in soups ; and wishing to send some to his 

 friends in England, Dr Clarke purchased a few jars 

 on reaching the town of Tornea. They were 

 brought by a boy without shoes or stockings, who, 

 having executed his errand, was observed to cast a 

 longing eye towards some books of specimens of 

 plants which lay on the table ready for arrange- 

 ment. To the surprise of the travellers, he named 

 every one of them as fast as they were shown him, 

 giving to each its appropriate Linnsean appellation. 

 They found, on inquiry, that this extraordinary 

 youth was the son of a poor widow, who had placed 

 him an apprentice under this apothecary. His 

 master had himself a turn for natural history ; 

 nevertheless, he did not choose that his young 

 pupil should leave the pestle and mortar to run 

 after botanical specimens. " It interrupted," he 

 said (and probably with sufficient reason), "the 

 business of the shop." The consequence was, that 

 the lad had secretly carried on his studies, snatch- 

 ing every hour he could spare to ramble, barefooted, 

 in search of a new plant or insect, which he care- 

 fully concealed from his master, who at length, by 

 accident, discovered his boxes of insects, which he 

 unscrupulously appropriated to his own use, ex- 



