“Public lectures on several branches were given in the University, attendance being quite voluntary; but I was so sickened with lectures at Edinburgh that I did not even attend Sedgwick's eloquent and interesting lectures.”
Despite this lack of enthusiasm for lectures, Darwin did attend the lectures given by the Professor of Botany, John Stevens Henslow. Henslow was admired and respected amongst academics and students alike, and had a reputation for being an entertaining and enlightening man to learn from; by 1827, as many as eighty students took his lecture courses. Darwin became a great friend of Henslow, and indeed it was Henslow who secured Darwin's place on the Beagle for him.
Two or three times in each session he [Henslow] took excursions with his botanical class, either a long walk to the habitat of some rare plant, or in a barge down the river to the fens, or in coaches to some more distant place, as to Gamlingay, to see the wild lily-of-the-valley, and to catch on the heath the rare natter-jack. These excursions have left a delightful impressions on my mind.(Bettany, G. T. : Life of Charles Darwin, 1887)