332 THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 



regiment. At the close of the war, although recommended 

 by an examinmg board of officers for a cadetship at West 

 Point, he determined to leave the military service, partly 

 because, on account of his father's death, affairs at home 

 needed his attention, and partly because he had no relish 

 for a military career. 



He was determined, however, to obtain, if possible, a 

 liberal education, and so in the autumn of the same year, 

 1865, he resumed his collegiate course, this time at the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago. From this institution he was graduated 

 in 1867. He then spent three years in the study of theology 

 only to reach the conclusion at the close of his course, that 

 he knew less of the subject than he thought he knew at the 

 beginning. These studies were therefore laid aside, and the 

 young man began to take a deeper interest in things 

 demonstrable. 



Wearied by close application to books, with health con- 

 siderably impaired, and not a little disappointed at the 

 outcome of his years of study, he gave up the idea of 

 entering a profession, and determined to go into business. 

 Ere long the opportunity presented itself, and he entered a 

 drug store and began the study of pharmacy. His love of 

 plants, first learned at his mother's knee, and rekindled by 

 his course in botany at college, brief and unsatisfactory as 

 this was, now received a new stimulus. He began with 

 collecting and studying native medicinal plants, but his 

 enthusiasm soon carried him much beyond this, and it was 

 not long before he had identified the larger proportion of 

 the local phsenogamous plants. In fact, his drug business 

 received a much larger share of attention on its scientific 

 than on its financial side. It consequently languished, and 



