we 
ee 
1896.] Michael Schuck Bebb. 57 
tle into the state of Illinois. Here was certainly a novel ex- 
perience. The distance was four hundred miles, and a new 
flora was constantly opening out before him, giving him fresh 
delight each succeeding day. 
he new home to which we are now introduced was to be 
the scene of important botanical labors. The boy botanist 
was to become a trained and skilled veteran, and his efforts 
were to be concentrated upon his favorite specialty. The es- 
tate consisted of beautiful, rolling, prairie land, ‘‘well watered,” 
he says, ‘‘by cold, clear, spring-fed brooks, along the banks 
of which, where the water courses had given partial protec- 
tion from prairie fires, were fine, open groves of oak.” Th 
house, built after a design by Charles Downing, was con- 
structed of lumber hauled from Chicago, and was fifteen miles 
distant from the nearest town. The virgin prairie filled our 
young friend with eager delight. ‘‘Ah!” he writes, ‘‘that was 
lovely beyond description, and a perfect paradise for the out- 
of-doors botanist.” His cup was full and running over with 
Joy when he came into possession at this time of four stand- 
ard books, Wood's Class Book of Botany, Gray’s Botanical 
Text Book and Manual, Torrey and Gray’s Flora of North 
America, and Gray’s Genera IIlustrata. Imagine the feelings 
oa young botanist, longing for the proper kind of system- 
atic instruction, on receiving at one and the same moment 
such a collection as this. But it was still five or six years 
more before he was to know the advantage and the keen 
Pleasure to be derived from personal acquaintance with fellow 
otanists, and the consequent interchange of ideas as well as 
exchange of specimens. 
gene the early years of the family life at Fountaindale, 
. nal, besides working on the farm and studying the na- 
ve 
the 
nue he was attending, Dr. George Vasey, then living at 
iN8wood, Illinois. The acquaintance soon ripened into a 
Sedges, a 
the first 
bo 
Says of this event. Such enthusiasm belongs to the 
, anist. ‘I cannot tell how rich this made me. I spread 
“ Specimens out over the floor, over the chairs, over the 
