24 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. II 



lectures at the Sydenham College, and, as has been 

 seen, began to prepare for the matriculation ex- 

 amination of the University of London. At the 

 Sydenham College he met with no little success, 

 winning, besides certificates of merit in other depart- 

 ments, a prize his first prize for botany. His 

 vivid recollections, given below, of this entry into 

 the scientific arena are taken from a journal he kept 

 for his fiancee during his absence from Sydney on 

 the cruises of the Rattlesnake. 



ON BOARD H.M.S. RATTLESNAKE, CHRISTMAS 1847. 



Next summer it will be six years since I made my 

 first trial in the world. My first public competition, 

 small as it was, was an epoch in my life. I had been 

 attending (it was my first summer session) the botanical 

 lectures at Chelsea. One morning I observed a notice 

 stuck up a notice of a public competition for medals, 

 etc., to take place on the 1st August (if I recollect right). 

 It was tben the end of May or thereabouts. I remember 

 looking longingly at the notice, and some one said to me, 

 " Why don't you go in and try for it ? " I laughed at 

 the idea, for I was very young, and my knowledge 

 somewhat of the vaguest. Nevertheless I mentioned 

 the matter to S. 1 when I returned home. He likewise 

 advised me to try, and so I determined I would. I set 

 to work in earnest, and perseveringly applied myself to 

 such works as I could lay my hands on, Lindley's and 

 Decandolle's Systems and the Annales des Sciences Naturelles 

 in the British Museum. I tried to read Scbleiden, but 

 my German was insufficient. 



For a young band I worked really hard from eight 



1 His brother-in-law. 



