1896. ] Michael Schuck Bebb. 55 
Shortly after Michael’s birth, the school was closed and in 
1835 the family moved to Hamilton, the county seat, a few 
miles distant, where Mr. Bebb wished to practise law. He 
had already become a very successful lawyer, as was attested 
by the comfortable house and ample grounds which they now 
occupied. Here Michael’s boyhood was spent, and here be- 
gan his first love for botany. ‘The pleasure grounds, vege- 
table and fruit gardens,” he writes, ‘‘occupied four acres 
There were four acres more of pasture for the horse and cow, 
and in addition to this four acres of Morus multicaulis with a 
cocoonery. ‘‘The garden was laid out in old-fashioned geo- 
metric style; the borders well filled with rare shrubs and per- 
ennials, Holland bulbs, and, I am happy to add, native plants 
as well.” If we add to this a well-stocked greenhouse, twenty 
by one hundred and fifty feet in dimensions, we can readily 
understand how Michael early acquired a passion for the study 
of the plants about him. 
He attended a private school, did a boy’s share of work 
on the farm and in the garden, and enjoyed the companion- 
ship of the head gardener, whose practical talks on horticul- 
tural subjects made a great impression upon him. In later 
years he spoke with great fondness of this time, and he 
always dwelt very tenderly upon the influence of his mother, 
a fair-haired, comely, serene woman, who had almost the 
entire care of the social, moral and home life of the family of 
five children.” On the occasion of her death in 1892, he 
biting “It was the closing of a long and useful life. Two 
‘alts in her character were so predominant as to be at once 
wo by every one with whom she came into personal 
Scien first, an unswerving conscientiousness; second, a 
as erful placidity of demeanor.” It is when we know of 
: Influences as these that we can understand the genial 
ature and the true love for home and family that were so 
Prominent in Mr. Bebb. 
Wises : father’s library in Hamilton were many books on 
this eee more or less botanical in character, but it was 
in No the influence of his uncle, Evan Bebb, a merchant 
ew York city, that his father received some volumes re- 
ie 4 Purely botanical subjects. These were a cont 
Which in a Natural History Reports of the State of New in , 
later & ¢ uded the two volumes of Torrey’s Flora. A little 
merson’s Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts was added 
. 
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