ON BOYHOOD DAYS 



plant life, and developed within me an insistent 

 desire to go into the field and find the answer to 

 the problems that the book only suggested. 



In particular it showed to me the plants of the 

 field in a new light. 



I had understood from Darwin's earlier work 

 that all life has evolved from lower forms; that, 

 therefore, species are not fixed and immutable but 

 are plastic, and amenable to the influences of their 

 environment. 



But I had not before understood to what an 

 extent species of every kind all about us vary, and 

 what possibilities of modification of existing forms 

 are contingent on such variation. From that hour 

 plant life presented to me a sort of challenge to 

 test its capacities, to investigate its traits, to invent 

 new ideals of growth and to endeavor to mould 

 the plant in accordance with these ideals. 



Thus, thanks to the inspiration of Darwin's 

 work, my ideas were finally crystallized. The 

 philosophical bent inherited from my father and 

 the love of nature that I owed to my mother were 

 to work now in harmony. 



Guided by the practical instincts that were 

 perhaps a joint heritage from both strains of my 

 ancestors, and the love of mechanics that was only 

 second to my love of nature, the inventive pro- 

 pensities that had found earlier vent in the manu- 



[55] 



