. 47.] TO W. J. HOOKEfi. 443 



taken to studying botany, which he never did before, 

 and digs away at his dried specimens most persever- 

 ingly. At first it went against the grain, and he used 

 to wish himself far off in the woods. But he has kept 

 on for six or eight months, and now generally prefers 

 to find out a plant by his own skill, rather than have 

 me tell him what it is ; so he will be able to collect 

 more understandingly, and the year passed here will 

 not be lost time. 



Dr. Robert Brown died shortly after the date of this 

 letter. In Dr. Gray's memoir of him, he says : 



" Upon the death of Robert Brown, it was remarked 

 that, next to Humboldt, his name adorned the list of a 

 greater number of scientific societies than that of any 

 other naturalist or philosopher. It was Humboldt 

 himself who, many years ago, saluted Brown with the 

 appellation, ' Botanicorum facile princeps,' and the 

 universal consent of botanists recognized and con- 

 firmed the title. . . . Brown delighted to rise from a 

 special case to high and wide generalizations ; and 

 was apt to draw most important and always irresistible 

 conclusions from small selected data or particular 

 points of structure. He had unequaled skill in find- 

 ing decisive instances. ... So all his discoveries and 

 all his notes and observations are fertile far beyond 

 the reader's expectation. Perhaps no naturalist ever 

 taught so much in writing so little. . . . Those who 

 knew him as a man will bear unanimous testimony 

 to the unvarying simplicity, truthfulness, and benevo- 

 lence of his character, as well as to the singular up- 

 rightness of his judgment." 



1 Scientijic Papers of Asa Gray, vol. ii. 



