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2 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. [Jan. 
mained a year. His father, who thought an investment in land 
better than one in a collegiate education for his son, persuaded 
him to begin at once the study of medicine. He therefure entered 
the “ Medical ‘College of the Western District ” (located at Fair- 
field) in the autumn of 1826, whose courses of lectures in chem- 
istry he had attended the year before while at the academy. The 
annual sessions were very short. 
In the spring and summer of 1827 he studied with Dr. Priest, 
of Sauquoit, returning to the medical school inautumn. In that 
winter, 1827-8, he chanced to read the article Botany in Brew- 
ster’s Edinburgh Encyclopedia. He was greatly interested, 
bought Eaton’s Manual and read its pages eagerly, longing for 
spring. He sallied forth early, discovered a plant in bloom, 
brought it home and found its name in the Manual to be Clay- 
tonia Virginica, the species Caroliniana to which the plant really 
belonged, not being distinguished then. In the same spring he 
became a pupil of Dr. John F. Trowbridge, of Bridgewater, with 
zled him, hoping to get assistance from Professor Hadley. He 
These botanical studies continued to oceupy his leisure. In 
the summer of 1829 he collected largely, and in the summer of 
In the latter part of May and June he delivered his first 
course of lectures on botany, Dr. Beck, who had been lecturing 
_ previously, having given up the engagement. With the money 
