LIFE AND EXPERIENCES 



CHAPTER I 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 



Grandfather Roscoe My Father My Mother Dr. Shepherd School- 

 days -Early Taste for Chemistry Friends of my Youth. 



IT is not given to many men to be mistaken for their 

 own grandfather. This, however, happened to me. 



Whilst visiting Egypt in the winter of 1891, with 

 my family, I inspected the Khedival medical school, 

 and was there introduced to an Egyptian professor 

 who was able to speak French. On hearing my name 

 he politely congratulated himself on meeting a dis- 

 tinguished English botanist with whose work he was 

 well acquainted. With some difficulty I recognised 

 that he had mistaken me for my grandfather, William 

 Roscoe, the author of a monograph on the Monan- 

 drean Plants, printed by Geo. Smith of Liverpool in 

 1828. This is now a rare work, quoted in Quaritch's 

 catalogue at 6 6s. The plates were hand-coloured 

 and the arrangement was that of the Linnaean system. 

 Mr. Roscoe also made several contributions on 

 botanical subjects to the Transactions of the Linnean 

 Society in 1 806 and the following years. 



My grandfather was born in the year 1753 an d died 

 in 1831, so that he lived to a good old age. 



He was the first man of real mark Liverpool had so 

 far produced, and it is remarkable that, entirely self- 



