2^0 



THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 



completed his academical course he entered Union College 

 at Schenectady, New York, in the fall of 1849. By the 

 end of the term his funds were exhausted, and he had to 

 seek employment for the w^inter. So, in company with A. B. 

 Smith, now a successful lawyer of Poughkeepsie, New York^ 

 he started afoot to Saratoga County to find a school to 

 teach. After walking for some miles they came to where 

 the road forked in the midst of a dense pine wood. Not 

 knowing which fork to take, a stick was set up on one end 

 and allowed to fall. It fell towards the right-hand fork^ 

 which the young men followed, and soon came to the 

 village of Charlton. Here Mr. Ellis got a school, while 

 Smith went on to Galway, the next village, and, fortunately, 

 got the school there. In June, 1851, Mr. Ellis graduated 

 from Union College with the degree of A. B. (since advanced 

 to A. M.), and went to Germantown, Pennsylvania, into a 

 select school with the Rev. D. Washburne. 



He had studied botany a little at college, but it was 

 here that he commenced to take an active interest in 

 phanerogamic botany, little dreaming what the outcome 

 would be. The earliest plants he remembers collecting were 

 Liparis liliifolia and Lygodium pahnatam. In November, 

 1851, he severed his connection with the school and entered 

 the Albany Academy as classical tutor, remaining one year. 

 This position was better suited to his taste, for he had 

 decided to become a professional teacher of classics. George 

 H. Cook, recently deceased, State Geologist of New Jersey, was 

 Principal of the Academy. The evenings were spent making 

 blow-pipe analyses of minerals with G. W. Taylor, a fellow- 

 tutor. The following year he and Taylor went into a select 

 school together for three months, but as it did not pay, the 



