Emily Dickinson, poet of Amherst, Massachusetts, received formal training in botany and horticulture while a student at Amherst Academy from age 9 to 16. Her devotion to the science of and appreciation for plants came naturally, however. With added labels in Dickinson’s hand giving botanical names and, in most cases, Linnaean class and order numbers. More than half the specimens represent native or naturalized species in the Amherst area; the remainder are yard, garden, or house plants.