12 EAELY DAYS 



acquired as a natural consequence of the surroundings, 

 and without effort entailed by study in later years. Sir 

 Joseph once said to me : ' You young men do not know 

 your plants.' Certainly we did not in the way that he 

 knew them. Few have ever known, few ever will know 

 them in that way. Such knowledge comes only from 

 growing up with them from earliest childhood, as he did. 



The influence of Sir William's teaching, with its personal 

 stimulus, its wealth of illustration by specimens and diagrams, 

 its fostering of accurate observation and its botanising excur- 

 sions, is well described in his son's own words taken from the 

 address delivered at the opening of the Botanical Laboratory 

 in Glasgow 1901. We see the boy sharing in these excursions 

 long before he was a regular student at his father's lectures. 



It was a bold venture for my Father to undertake so re- 

 sponsible an office, for he had never lectured, or even attended 

 a course of lectures. But he had resources that enabled him 

 to overcome all obstacles familiarity with his subject, 

 devotion to its study, energy, eloquence, a commanding 

 presence with urbanity of manners, and, above all, the 

 art of making the student love the science he taught. But 

 his energies were not confined to lecturing. Feeling the 

 want of a manual on the Scottish Flora to put into the 

 students' hands, he published, in time for use in his second 

 course, the * Flora Scotica,' in two volumes, the outcome 

 mainly of his earlier Scottish expeditions ; and in readiness 

 for his third course he produced, at his own cost, and from 

 drawings made by himself, an oblong folio of twenty-one 

 lithographed plates, with descriptions of the organs, etc., 

 of upwards of three hundred plants. A copy of this work 

 was placed before every two students in the class during 

 that portion of the day's lecture which was devoted to the 

 analysis of plants, obtained from the garden and placed 

 in the students' hands for this purpose. I should mention 

 that every student was expected to provide himself with 

 a pocket lens, knife, and pair of forceps, aided with which 

 he followed the demonstrations of the professor. I think 

 it may fairly be said that these early lectures heralded the 

 dawn of scientific botanical teaching in Glasgow University. 



Another claim upon the professor's energies was due 



