forth. With such a man, then in the very prime of life, I 

 had promised myself the pleasure of frequent intercourse, 

 and a mutual interchange of ideas on our common and 

 favourite pursuit. But his habitual antipathy to society, a 

 rooted dislike to a ci'owded and commercial city, and, above 

 all, his partiality to the scenes and occupations afforded by 

 the situation of his little farm, rendered his visits to Glasgow 

 much less frequent than I could have wished, and his stay 

 among us was always of short duration. When he com- 

 plained of the difficulty of getting access to books, in his 

 retired place of abode, I have urged him to come and live in 

 the neighbourhood of Glasgow; but his answer invariably 

 was, " How should I live without the woods, and mountains, 

 and deep dells which afford me Fungi ; or the rocky beach 

 that yields me such an infinite variety of amusement in the 

 curious Algae, among which I am daily discovering something 

 new?" It was, indeed, in examining these minute produc- 

 tions of the Creator's hand that he spent almost the whole of 

 his life after his retirement from active service. In pursuit of 

 these, though his attention was wholly confined to the parish 

 in which he lived, he was so eminently successful, that among 

 the Fungi alone, he detected more species than had been 

 before described as natives of the whole of Scotland. His 

 specimens he preserved with the utmost care, gathering those 

 Lichens which are the most firmlv attached to the rocks and 

 the stones, by a method peculiar to himself; and drawing and 

 describing with the greatest accuracy, and with the constant 

 aid of a powerful microscope when characterising the minute 

 kinds, all such as were new or rare. Capt. Carmichael's 

 correspondence was limited to a small circle. All his dis- 

 coveries were communicated to me ; and whatever could be 

 useful to Dr. Greville's beautiful work on the Cryptogamiae of 

 Scotland, was liberally sent to that author. His personal 

 acquaintance with botanists was nearly as circumscribed ; yet 

 the visits paid him by individuals of congenial tastes, were 

 very gratifying, and he often spoke of the temporary residence 

 of the Rev. J. M. Berkeley in his immediate neighbourhood, 

 as a source of great pleasure to him. 



