176 ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE. [CHAP. 



certain scientific questions bearing on medicine, 

 and later to my intercourse with .... and 

 . .. ." (c,d,f,g) 



BIOLOGY. 



Botanical Subsection. 



(1) "My scientific tastes were inborn" [and 

 strongly hereditary], (a) 



(2) " As far as the word applies in any case, 

 I should say decidedly innate. Excepting such 

 influence as a little encouragement at home, I am 

 unable to trace any external stimulus. At set, 6, 

 I was given Joyce^s ' Scientific Dialogues/ which 

 I soon mastered, then other books ; before aat. 8, 

 I commenced making star maps ; set. 12-13, I 

 made some geological sections with tolerable 

 correctness ; and so on. It [then] seemed as 

 if any accident and the love of new vistas 

 were enough to lead me from one branch of 

 science to another." (a) 



(3) " Always fond of plants/' (a) 



(4) " Was always fond of objective and experi- 

 mental knowledge. I date my first efforts of any 



