The Days of a Man 1865 



on Ornithology, but when I returned I found that 

 she had got at them and reported correctly that the 

 little bird was Amphispiza belli. 



It should perhaps be explained that these and 

 similar details regarding the children are here given 

 at the special request of a psychologist interested in 

 problems of heredity. 



Turning Botany was my deepest youthful interest. In- 

 deed, on my first day at school, I drew out from the 

 any library a little book on flowers. Studying the 

 heavens in winter, in the summer I gave my spare 

 time to the listing of the plants of our region, be- 

 ginning with "Wood's Botany" as a guide, but 

 turning afterward to the more difficult and more 

 exact "Manual" by Dr. Gray. 



The country round about my home was very rich 

 in wild flowers, and in my early botanical studies I 

 perhaps strained a point by adorning the conveniently 

 white walls of my bedroom with the names of the 

 different plants as I identified them in turn. At 

 school no attention was paid to this interest of 

 mine. Fortunately, however; I soon made a helpful 

 acquaintance, a curious old man, Joshua Ellenwood 

 by name. Though he lived a lonely life on a poor 

 little farm, and wholly lacked scientific education, 

 he had nevertheless wandered far and wide through 

 the country round about, and had come to know 

 most of the plants. His vixen wife held in scorn the 

 "eccentric" tastes of her husband, who was, more- 

 over, ailing and was considered by most of his 

 neighbors as shiftless and a waster of time. 



t 24 3 



