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35

carried away twenty plants which I could cherish, repeat, meditate upon at my own leisure. The only thing that remained to be done was, to know how people, how learned people, call them. This being exactly the same business as that of committing to memory twenty foreign words—a business in which I was already clever—I settled it in a few a few minutes, thus: I put comfortably my catalogue upon the table, looked for No. 978, and found Achilæa Millefolium; this made rise before my imagination an eagle with a thousand feathers (on account of Aquila, in Latin eagle, mille thousand, and folium, leaf.)

I put simultaneously before my mind, roof covered with snow, and eagle; and high mountain rose immediately before my imagination thus—Roofs covered with snow are to be found in high mountains, and so are Eagles. In the same manner I treated all the 20, and afterwards several hundreds of medical plants in a few visits to the garden. The examination came—the effect produced by my answers was somewhat similar to the effects produced by my pupils upon those who witness with their own senses the generally declared impossible feats of memory performed by them with the greatest ease and cheerfulness.

The professor gave me a plant: this naturally brought before my imagination the nickname: this nickname led me immediately through the com-