290 JOHN RALFS. 



the larger " Floras," but was intended as a guide to the quick 

 determination of species ; and the simple straightforward language 

 employed, the judicious selection of practical characters, and the 

 small compass of the book admirably adapted it to the purposes of 

 a pocket manual. At the commencement of 1811 Mr. Kalfs opened 

 a correspondence with the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, whom he had met 

 some years previously ; this resulted in a close friendship, and 

 Ralfs and Berkeley appear to have constantly consulted one another 

 on questions connected with the Algae and Fungi. Berkeley's 

 correspondence (preserved in the Botanical Department of the 

 British Museum) contains some hundreds of letters from Ralfs, 

 many of them consisting of four closely-written quarto pages, and 

 containing pen-and-ink drawings. Ralfs seemed then to have 

 settled down to the study of the Desmids and Diatoms, but 

 continued to give a general attention to Fungi and other plants. 



The summers of 1841 and several subsequent years were spent 

 in visits to Ilfracombe and various parts of Wales, his longest stay 

 usually being at Dolgelly. In 1842 he was accompanied on his 

 Welsh trip by Borrer. In this year Ralfs sent a description 

 of Desmidium compression (a new species) to Dr. Balfour for the 

 Botanical Society of Edinburgh. In 1843-4-5 he contributed to 

 the same Society a series of papers on the Desmids and Diatoms, 

 and in one of them he mentions that the total number of Desmids 

 previously recorded in the British Floras was four— two Desmidia 

 and two Euastra. These papers were published in the 'Annals of 

 Natural History ' and in the ' Transactions ' of the Society. They 

 contain figures and descriptions of a number of species of Diatoms, 

 and over sixty Desmids, of which sixteen were new. In 1845 also 

 appeared his paper, "On the genera Spinel ina and Coleochcete," 

 A. N. H. xvi. p. 308. 



During this period Hassall was working at the Conferva, and 

 corresponded with Ralfs, who in his first letter suggested that they 

 should render each other assistance in their respective fields of work; 

 and the correspondence was carried on under the impression, on 

 Ralfs's part, that this was a definite understanding. In 1844 he 

 was much surprised, on receiving the prospectus of HassaH's forth- 

 coming book, to find that it was intended to include the Desmids 

 and Diatoms. A suggestion appears to have been made by a friend 

 of both that the book should be written jointly ; but it seems that 

 Hassall would not hear of this, and considered himself very badly 

 used because Ralfs was not inclined to hand over all his information 

 on the Diatoms and Desmids for publication under Hassall's name ; 

 and in one of his letters to Berkeley he remarked that Ralfs was the 

 most unreasonable man that he ever had to do with. In the work 

 which appeared in 1845, are evident copies, and vilely bad ones, of 

 Ralfs's figures in the 'Annals,' with "Hassall del." at the foot of 

 the plates. In the Introduction, while acknowledging indebtedness 

 to Berkeley and others, not a word was s;iid of what was owed to 

 Ralfs's work. Hassall was the only man of whom we recollect 

 Mr. Ralfs speaking with any degree of bitterness. 



In 1845 Ralfs was apparently suffering from the results of a 

 severe accident, for, from a letter written from Brislington, we find 



