124 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
the 30th October, 1790. Dr. Martius was the secretary ; and at pre- 
sent, after a lapse of sixty years, his illustrious eldest son, Professor von 
Martius of Munich, is the president (p. 121). Our author dedicated to 
Schreber, as a mark of sincere respect, a work he published in 1795, 
* Mineralogische Wanderungen,  &e. (Mineralogical journeys through 
part of Franconia and Thuringia, in letters addressed to a friend),—which 
compliment Schreber did not acknowledge, except in a very distant man- 
ner ; a cireumstance attributable, our author thinks, to his having visited 
and published the localities of several rare plants among Schreber's 
favourites, in the vicinity of Muggendorf, which, in a fit of jealousy, he 
wished to keep to himself (p. 171). Notwithstanding all this, the 
President honoured Martius by visiting him several times in company _ 
with the great Werner, for the purpose of inspecting his valuable - 
mineralogical collection. Both these savans placed themselves com- 
fortably near the drawers of my cabinet, which I exhibited with 
due parental fondness. ^ Werner would contemplate the specimens 
with minute attention before giving an opinion, which was never dic- 
tatorial, but, on the contrary, modest and diffident; a reserve which 
invariably attends a really great mind, while the reverse of it is cha- 
racteristic of the superficial pretender. In the breast of Schreber this 
reserve was carried to an extreme ; and it may be easily imagined that the 
two Coryphai kept clear of all arguments, and exhibited marked proofs 
of their discretion and caution. But there was this great difference 
between them—a calm conviction on the part of the one, and a nervous 
eonseientiousness on the part of the other. Originality was the leading 
feature of Werner ; the talent of gathering and accumulating stores of 
knowledge, that of Schreber. Both these qualities of mind are highly 
respectable—for genius and talents are alike the gifts of God ; but it 
is their especial development which forms the individual character of 
the man of science (p. 171). 
Those among his disciples whom he distinguished with his confi- 
dence, received at his hands every possible aid and encouragement, as 
for example Schweigger, subsequently professor at Königsberg, who 
prepared a flora of Erlangen under his direction. I regret that my 
eldest son had only the advantage of a short period in which to benefit 
under him; but Schreber was well-disposed, and sent him occasionally 
out to botanize, in order to collect plants which he wished to describe 
in *Sturm's Flora. To all these great and excellent points must be 
