38 CONTINUATION OF BOTANICAL STUDIES 



I could hold my own with the best of the teachers and stood well 

 with the people. I then decided to devote all my spare time to 

 natural history and as a commencement bought a few books. I 

 remember the first one I bought was Goldsmith's Natural History 

 and began its study, but soon gave it up. When I learned from 

 it that ants laid up corn for winter, I knew better. Next I took 

 geology and read Lyell's First Principles and bought Humboldt's 

 Cosmos and Hugh Millar and other works of like nature and many 

 on physical geography. By reading and observing in the open, 

 and from my habit of thought, I began to see the causes which 

 had produced all the changes in the world. My vision widened 

 and I saw how to apply my knowledge in school. I began to 

 give the scholars lectures on physical geography and covered the 

 land with plants and animals that I knew were there. It was 

 easy to show why cities grew up by the sea and on navigable 

 rivers and to explain about the trade routes of long ago. What 

 I said was not all fact but none of us knew any better and the 

 children were interested and I was learning. The first year in 

 Belleville I had established my reputation as a teacher and had 

 no trouble with pupils or trustees. My botanical studies were 

 ever before me and I made great progress in collecting. I made 

 a very large collection of Carices and named many of them, but 

 had a number I could not name. I wrote to Professor Dewey of 

 Rochester, New York State, and he answered at once that he 

 would name my collection for me, which he did. It turned out 

 that I had nearly ninety forms and some of them quite rare. One 

 of my species was Carex mirata Dewey which was dropped later 

 by the United States botanists, but has been taken up 

 again in late years. Two forms were considered new and 

 named by him Carex Bellivilla and C. Canadensis. This year 

 I began to collect every moss I could see, but I knew little 

 about them. 



My chief difficulty all through my earlier days was the lack 

 of basic knowledge. I did not know how to commence, never 

 having received a lesson in botany. Structural botany I learned 

 from Woods Botany. I studied the Linnaean System from Eng- 

 lish books and used it in placing plants all through the sixties. 



