JACOB BIGELOW 



1787-1879 



Blgelowia Menziesii 1 DE CANDOLLE 



It must ever prove a source of gratification to 

 lovers of natural science that the boys in the past, 

 studiously inclined, were often tolerantly or 

 resignedly allowed to " waste their time " in field 

 and wood, making boyish " collections " and har- 

 vesting observations. Jacob Bigelow says he 

 spent his long leisure, until he was thirteen, " rov- 

 ing about the woods, puzzling myself with specu- 

 lations on natural objects and taking intense de- 

 light in the construction of miniature saw mills, 

 machinery for entrapping rats and squirrels, and 

 rude attempts at drawing and carving." 



He speaks laughingly of his first lesson in bot- 

 any; it was given when, as a little boy, he asked 

 a learned gentleman the name of the plant " Star 

 of Bethlehem " : " That? Why, that's grass, 

 you little fool"! 



Massachusetts gave us this great educational 

 reformer, who was one of America's most learned 

 botanists and was closely associated with the lead- 



1 But neither this nor any of the four earlier Bifftlovias or Bige- 

 lowias, are now tenable. 



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