a:t. 17.] AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 15 



(It was really C. Caroliniana, but the two were 

 not distinguished in that book.) I was well pleased, 

 and went on, collecting and examining all the flowers 

 I could lay hands on ; and the rides over the country 

 to visit patients along with my preceptor, Dr. Trow- 

 bridge, gave good opportunities. I began an herba- 

 rium of shockingly bad specimens. In autumn, going- 

 back to Fairfield for the annual course of medical lec- 

 tures, I took specimens of those plants that puzzled me 

 to Professor Hadley, who had learned some botany of 

 Dr. Ives of New Haven, and had made a neat herba- 

 rium of the common New England and New York 

 plants, which I studied carefully that winter. At 

 Professor Hadley's suggestion I opened a correspond- 

 ence with Dr. Lewis C. Beck of Albany ,i who was 

 the botanist of the region. The next summer I col- 

 lected more easily and critically. The summer after, 

 I think, or probably the summer of 1830, I had an 

 opportunity to make a little run to New York, being 

 sent by Dr. Trowbridge to buy some medical books, 

 driving in a one-horse wagon, with my own horse, 

 ninety miles to Albany, thence by steamer to New York 

 over night ; one night there, and back next day by 

 boat to Albany, and so driving back to Bridgewater 

 in company with a man of business who joined me in 

 this little expedition. I stopjjed to see Lewis C. Beck 

 at Albany Academy ; there I first saw a grave-look- 

 ing man who I was told was Professor Henry, who 

 had just been making a wonderfid electro-magnet. I 

 had procured from Professor Hadley a letter of in- 

 troduction to Dr. Torrey, whose " Flora of the North- 

 em United States," vol. i., was our greatest help so 



1 Lewis C. Beck, 1798-1853 ; professor in Albany Acadenay ; author 

 of Botany of the United States North of Virginia. 



