204 SOME AMERICAN MEDICAL BOTANISTS 



through the wilds of Elk and Forest Counties, in 

 Pennsylvania. It was a genuine pioneer life. 

 Roads — and these bad — were few and far be- 

 tween. There was a scant population, with only 

 here and there a budding village. The streams 

 contained many trout, and deer were in every 

 forest, but not a house was built in the now pros- 

 perous town of Kane. No extensive lumbering 

 or mining interests existed there at that time 

 though the hills were black with timber and 

 extensive deposits of coal were known to exist. 



" The flora of the region contained many plants 

 that I had never seen. The Trilliums and the 

 Hobble Bush {Viburnum) were new to me. My 

 mother was a distant relative of Dr. William 

 Darlington and, like him, fond of botany; so 

 from her I inherited this fondness, she being 

 my first botanical teacher, while Darlington's 

 old Florula Cestrica was one of three books 

 which constituted my botanical library. The 

 other two were Torrey's Botany and Mrs. Lin- 

 coln's First Lessons in Botany. 



" I had never before seen such massive white 

 pines or hemlocks. The dense woods of beech, 

 yellow birch and sugar maples amazed me. I 

 allude to these small impressions because they 

 shaped my life. If the woods of my own state 

 contained so many things of interest, what could 

 I not find in regions unexplored? I would be- 



