2 
forth. With such a man, then in the very prime of life, I 
had promised myself the pleasure of frequent intercourse, 
and a mutual interchange of ideas on our common and 
favourite pursuit. But his habitual antipathy to society, a 
rooted dislike to a crowded and commercial city, and, above 
all his partiality to the scenes and occupations afforded by 
the situation of his little farm, rendered his visits to Glasgow 
much less frequent than I could have wished, and his stay 
among us was always of short duration. When he com- 
plained of the difficulty of getting access to books, in his 
retired place of abode, I have urged him to come and live in . 
the neighbourhood of Glasgow; but his answer invariably 
was, * How should I live without the woods, and mountains, 
and deep dells which afford me Fungi; or the rocky beach 
that yields me such an infinite variety of amusement in the 
curious Algæ, among which I am daily discovering something 
new?" It was, indeed, in examining these minute produc- 
tions of the Creator's hand that he spent almost the whole of 
his life after his retirement from active service. In pursuit of 
these, though his attention was wholly confined to the parish 
in which he lived, he was so eminently successful, that among 
the Fungi alone, he detected more species than had been 
before described as natives of the whole of Scotland. His — 
specimens he preserved with the utmost care, gathering those 
Lichens which are the most firmly attached to the rocks and 
the stones, by a method peculiar to himself; and drawing and 
describing with the greatest accuracy, and with the constant 
aid of a powerful microscope when characterising the minute 
kinds, all such as were new or rare. Capt. Carmichael’s 
correspondence was limited to a small circle. All his dis- 
coveries were communicated to me; and whatever could be 
useful to Dr. Greville's beautiful work on the Cryptogamize of 
Scotland, was liberally sent to that author. His personal 
acquaintance with botanists was nearly as circumscribed; yet — - 
the visits paid him by individuals of congenial tastes, were > _ 
very gratifying, and he often spoke of the temporary residence 
of the Rev. J. M. Berkeley in his immediate neighbourhood, 
as a source of great pleasure to him. 
