XXIX 
Glasgow , 1820-1840. 
giving him the highest praise for his perspicuity. I have 
written for Kieser’s work 1 on the subject, which Brown says 
is the best. Mirbel has seen what nobody else can ; so 
nobody contradicts him, though many won’t believe him.’ 
Before enlarging on my father’s success as a lecturer, I may 
premise that the teaching of botany in the first quarter of the 
last century was very different from that which now prevails. 
It was regarded as ancillary to that of Materia Medica, and 
as a means of enabling the practitioner to recognize the 
plants used in medicine when there might be no druggist 
to appeal to. Furthermore, it was required by the principal 
examining bodies for medical degrees or licences, that the 
candidate should have attended a course of lectures delivered 
in a botanical garden registered for the purpose ; and in these 
gardens the plants were invariably arranged according to the 
Linnean 2 system, which consequently had to be taught. 
The latter was, however, with the new Glasgow Professor 
a secondary consideration, his primary aim being to open 
the eyes and minds of his pupils to the principles upon which 
plants were classified, and their distribution and uses, which 
was as much, he thought, as could be comprehended in a 
course of sixty lectures by young men who did not even know 
the elements of biology, and had not been exercised in using 
their eyes, hands, and brain in unison in the examination of a 
plant or animal. The course was opened by a few introductory 
lectures on the history of botany and general character of 
plant life. As a rule the first half of each hour was occupied 
with lecturing on organography, morphology, and classifi- 
cation, and the second half with the analysis in the class-room 
of specimens supplied to the pupils, the most studious of 
whom took these home for further examination. An interest- 
ing event in these half-hours was the Professor frequently 
calling upon such students as volunteered for being examined, 
to demonstrate the structure of a plant or fruit placed in the 
1 Grundziige der Anatomie der Pflanzen. Jena, 1815. 
2 Some of the students of my father’s first year’s course remonstrated against 
his introducing the Natural System into his teaching. 
