5<5 PllOCEEDlNGS OF THE 



Crocus. The following extract from a letter written from Tetuan 

 gives us a glimpse of this trio in the field: — 



" I say that ViwW finds this or that because he beats me Jtolloiv in 

 botanisii]g and is making a splendid herbarium. 1 find my eye- 

 sight quite fails me as a collector; indeed, 1 have been remarking 

 for two years now that 1 cannot read the garden labels with my 

 spectacles even, except I stoop down *. Mr. Maw has a marvellous 

 eye also, especially for bulbs. The aggregate knowledge of liall and 

 Maw as to European plants is simply astounding. Ball knows the 

 smallest flowerless scrap of hundreds of obscure things (e.g. Medi- 

 cago, Care.v, and such like), and Maw recognises the bulbs by leaf, 

 however like the long grass they grow amongst." 



In the summer of 1877 Hooker in company with Asa Gray, the 

 great American botanist, undertook a journey of three months' 

 duration in California and elsewhere in the United States of 

 America. Of this journey Asa Gray wrote t : — 



" Never were such busy people as Hooker and I the whole time. 

 In fact, I was bound to make Hooker see just as much as possible 

 within our limited time, and it seemed on the Avbole best for us to 

 see very much in glimpses and snatches rather than far less more 

 leisurely and thoroughly. He will have told you of our over nine 



thousand miles of travel together, and of how he hked it 



"We should like to do it all over, and more. But especially we 

 should like to see California in green attire. JVot that we are not 

 interested and taken with the sere aspect of these western regions 

 in summer, which we fancy more than Hooker does. In fact, the 

 greenness of England is so congenial to him that he took more 

 delight in our eastern States, which he had mere glimpses of, than 

 in all the wide western region, though, of course, there was more 

 to learn in these." 



The rambling spirit in Hooker enabled him fully to enjoy more 

 modest excursions. The following is a typical extract from a 

 holiday letter written from the High Force, Teesdale, in ]865. 

 As indicated in the previous extract from A?a Gray, bleak mono- 

 tonous landscape was little to his liking. 



" I call the country here Mdeotis aw ay from the ri^ er banks, 

 which are charming. We are vastly pleased with the place, for 

 even the hideous moors make capital hale walking ground and the 



moraines are most interesting AVe enjoy this place very 



much ; it is just the sort of climate for my wife, and I am rapidly 

 getting into that condition when after breakfast dinner is the only 

 subject worth a thought. I have botanised Cronkley pretty well 

 and got most of the good plants — nothing new as yet, but a little 

 Juncns of which I send specimen enclosed, it is most abundant 



* Tlicre was notbing seriously amiss with his eycsigbt, as the footnote at 

 p. 49 shows. 



t ' Letters of Asa Gray,' 1893, p. 671. 



