ch. xi.] 18581859. 205 



bed of thistles, which by every wide eddy were blown far out 

 to sea, and then came right in at right angles to the shore ! 

 One day such a number of insects were washed up by the 

 tide, and I brought to life thirteen species of Coleoptera; 

 not that I suppose these came from France. But do you 

 watch for thistle-seed as you saunter along the coast. . . . 



C. D. to J. D. Hooker. [Down] Oct. 6th, 1858. 



... If you have or can make leisure, I should very 

 much like to hear news of Mrs. Hooker, yourself, and the 

 children. Where did you go, and what did you do and are 

 doing ? There is a comprehensive text. 



You cannot tell how I enjoyed your little visit here. It 

 did me much good. If Harvey * is still with you, pray re- 

 member me very kindly to him. 



... I am working most steadily at my Abstract [ Origin 

 of Species], but it grows to an inordinate length; yet fully 

 to make my view clear (and never giving briefly more than 

 a fact or two, and slurring over difficulties), I cannot make 

 it shorter. It will yet take me three or four months ; so 

 slow do I work, though never idle. You cannot imagine 

 what a service you have done me in making me make this 

 Abstract ; for though I thought I had got all clear, it has 

 clarified my brains very much, by making me weigh the 

 relative importance of the several elements. 



He was not so fully occupied but that he could find time 

 to help his boys in their collecting. He sent a short notice 

 to the Entomologists' Weekly Intelligencer, June 25th, 1859, 

 recording the capture of Licimis silphoides, Clytus mysti- 

 cus, Panctgceus \-pustulatus. The notice begins with the 

 words, " We three very young collectors having lately taken 

 in the parish of Down," &c, and is signed by three of his 

 boys, but was clearly not written by them. I have a vivid 

 recollection of the pleasure of turning out my bottle of dead 

 beetles for my father to name, and the excitement, in which 

 he fully shared, when any of them proved to be uncommon 

 ones. The following letter to Mr. Fox (Nov. 13 th, 1858), 

 illustrates this point : 



" I am reminded of old days by my third boy having just 

 begun collecting beetles, and he caught the other day 

 Bracliinus crepitans, of immortal Whittlesea Mere memory. 



* W. H. Harvey, born 1811, died 1866 : a well-known botanist. 



