CHAPTER FIVE 



Choice ENTERING Cornell, I had in mind one or the other 



f a of two alluring callings : I would be a botanist or a 



ing breeder of fine sheep. For I was fascinated by the 



classification and distribution of plants, and at the 



same time much interested in the little I knew of 



breeding and heredity, acquired partly from limited 



reading, partly from experience. 



My early interest in sheep never died out, al- 

 though my time came to be fully occupied with other 

 matters. But, traveling through England, I have 

 always been interested in the development of the 

 different breeds through segregation and isolation, 

 each county having even yet its special kind. In 

 Australia, also, I have given some attention to the 

 results of modern selective breeding, which provided 

 New South Wales with the best merino or fine- 

 wooled stock in the world. 



interest In connection with my studies I had read of 

 distinguished men who had made Botany their life 

 work, and I had exchanged a few letters with Asa 

 Gray of Harvard, the most eminent botanist in 

 America. Yet such a career seemed almost un- 

 attainable to an impecunious boy with no visible 

 prospect of extensive travel, which alone gives access 

 to new floras. On the other hand, there were then 

 no available means for intensive study of plant 

 behavior, as our microscopes were inadequate, micro- 

 tomes had not been invented, and plant physiology 

 was in its infancy. Moreover, my own botanical 

 C ioo H 



