198 THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 



into the field for the study of botany a class of teachers and 

 others interested in the science. The writer of this 

 book remembers while a lad of accompanying the 

 professor on several of his excursions. One in particular 

 he remembers as taken to Rockland, and another to the 

 Wissahickon, in Fairmount Park. The stimulus which 

 he received from these excursions probably determined 

 him many years afterward to make botany his life-work. 

 The life of Professor Ennis was quiet, simple, dignified and 

 laborious. He was a member of a number of the chief scien- 

 tific societies both in this country and abroad, and his 

 contributions in the shape of addresses before learned 

 societies, pamphlets and articles in scientific periodicals 

 were many and varied, always strikingly original, and 

 sometimes prophetic. Among these contributions, chiefly 

 on astronomical problems, was one entitled " The Two 

 Great AVorks to be done on our Sidereal Systems." In his 

 book on " The Origin of Stars," published over twenty 

 years ago, some of the most transcendental problems of 

 phj'Sical astronomy were attacked. Professor Ennis's sym- 

 pathies were not narrow ; he was familiar with the entire 

 range of English and classical literature, and was an excel- 

 lent linguist. His literary style was simple, direct and 

 lucid ; he had a great dislike for " big words," and always 

 succeeded in making his ideas clear by the use of j^lain and 

 untechnical language, even when handling the most abstruse 

 problems. His habits and tastes were simple, his wants 

 few, his disposition kind and gentle, and the attitude of 

 his mind was distinctly reverent. He was so quiet, modest 

 and unobtrusive, that but few suspected the j^resence of a 

 great thinker so near at home, and still fewer knew him 

 personally. He died in Houston, Texas, January 12, 1890. 



