. 70.] TO MESSRS. REDFIELD AND CANBY. 713 



other botanists at the garden, with Dr. Cosson and 

 M. Lavallee. 1 Then, as the Hookers could not carry 

 out their promise of joining us and going together to 

 Italy now, we agreed to defer that till early spring, 

 and back we came here for work. We are settled in 

 our old lodgings on Kew Green, where we feel quite 

 at home, and are near the Hookers and the herbarium ; 

 and here I am to polish off the Asteroideae, - - some 

 very rough surfaces in Aster yet to grind down. We 

 should be pleased to hear from you. 



It was at Cordova that I spelled out in Spanish the 

 welcome news that the Eepublicans had carried the 

 election, and grandly. 



And now, with Mrs. Gray's love joined to mine to 

 your good wives and children, I am 



Cordially yours, ASA GRAY. 



Dr. Gray settled down at Kew for hard work, but 

 as the days were very short, and of course the herba- 

 rium was closed at dusk, he had long evenings. There 



~ o 



were many pleasant dinners, among others at Mr. John 

 Ball's, where he met Robert Browning ; and a charm- 

 ing visit to Lord Ducie at Tortworth, where he was 

 much interested in the fine and rare trees, and had an 

 afternoon's visit to see Berkeley Castle, one of the old- 

 est, if not the oldest, of inhabited castles in England. 

 He paid another interesting visit to Cambridge, to 

 Professor Babington, where he had not been since 

 his visit in 1851, and where among others he met 

 again Dr. Thompson, then Master of Trinity, who had 



1 Alphonse Lavallee, 1835-1884. Paris. " His specialty, ornamen- 

 tal trees and shrubs, of which he had nearly the largest and best 

 collection in Europe, studying them with assiduity " [A. G.J. 



