NEW ENGLAND 237 



further weakened me, and this led me to think 

 of taking up medicine as a profession. On the 

 whole it seemed to me that this would be most 

 congenial, and I studied for a year with the in- 

 tention of becoming a physician and have had 

 occasion constantly to realize in later life how 

 valuable this experience was. The knowledge of 

 physiology and practical hygiene thus gained 

 could many times be applied to the direction and 

 interpretation of plant experiments. 



It is quite possible that I should have con- 

 tinued my studies and have graduated in medi- 

 cine had not the death of my father occurred at 

 this time. This changed all our plans. 



From earhest childhood my chief delight had 

 been found in the study of nature and in par- 

 ticular in the companionship of flowers. 



jNly earliest recollections center about the 

 pleasure experienced in wandering in the woods, 

 gathering wild flowers in summer, and in winter 

 making excursions among the walnuts, birches, 

 oaks, and pines that, viewed in perspective, seem 

 to have been almost of the proportions of Se- 

 quoias, but which visits of later j^ears revealed 

 as trees of very ordinary proportions. 



So it was perhaps inevitable that sooner or 

 later an occupation should be chosen that would 

 bring me hourly in contact with nature. But it 



