176   ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE.

[cxar.

certain scientific questions bearing on medicine, and later to my intercourse with . . . . and " (c, d, .f g)

BIOLOGY.

Botanical Subsection.

(1) "My scientific tastes were inborn" [and strongly hereditary]. (a)

(2) As far as the word applies in any case, I should say decidedly innate. Excepting such influence as a little encouragement at home, I am unable to trace any external stimulus. At m t. 6, I was given Joyce's `Scientific Dialogues,' which I soon mastered, then other books; before aet. 8, I commenced making star maps ; eat. 12-13, I made some geological sections with tolerable correctness ; and so on. It [then] seemed as if any accident and the love of new vistas were enough to lead me from one branch of science to another." (a)

(3) " Always fond of plants." (a)

(4) " Was always fond of objective and experimental knowledge. I date my first efforts of any