252 Naturalist at Large 



with it went Price, who now has been in Brazil for sev- 

 eral years, the very best sort of good-will envoy. 



Harvard and Brazil have long been allies. On the wall 

 of my office hangs a picture inscribed, "To Mrs. Agassiz 

 from Dom Pedro d' Alcantara, Boston, June 14, 1876," a 

 souvenir of the Emperor of Brazil's visit to Mrs. Agassiz 

 after the Professor's death and after the Emperor had more 

 or less voluntarily laid down the Royal Crown. 



The Botanical Garden of Rio is comparable only to 

 that of Buitenzorg in Java. In some respects, however, it 

 is more spectacular and more instructive, for it is divided 

 into sections, one growing the xerophytic vegetation of 

 the deserts of Ceara, another filled with the incredible 

 forest trees of Amazonia, a third with orchids, a fourth 

 with enormous palms, and so on. Dr. Campos Porto was 

 Director when last I was there, and his first words were to 

 ask about the health of my beloved colleague Oakes Ames. 

 They had botanized together years before orchid hunting, 

 for the Ames herbarium of orchids is probably the richest 

 and best organized in existence. 



We have pleasant recollections of Montevideo. When 

 first we were in Buenos Aires, Florentino Ameghino was 

 alive. And it was of him that Dr. W. B. Scott wrote: — 



He and his wife lived like hermits in a corner of his 

 large house, all the rest of which was given up to his 

 shop and his collections. Every penny which he could 

 scrape up was devoted to the publication of his papers 

 and to keeping his brother Carlos at work collecting 

 fossils in Patagonia. In the history of science I do not 

 know a finer example of courage and devotion under 



