HEINRICH GUSTAV REICHENBACH. 195 



Mr. Can-uthers kindly allows me to select the following, which is not 

 open to this objection, as a specimen of his quaint style : — 



'' 565/= 



'* My dear Carruthers, 



" What pity I did not catch you though twice at Brit. 

 Mus. I hope to end my Lindleyan work next easter. Then my 

 wings will grow. Excuse delay of our botanic interferences. Matter 

 is, this year nearly runs away, viz. 



" 4 weeks in bed, conseq. of hunting Isoetes in a cool lake for 

 3 hours, Nov. 7. 



"4 weeks Florence, Rome, Naples, Pisa. 



** 4 weeks England. 



*' 4 weeks Vienna, Hungary, Styria, Istria, Lomb.-Venetia, 

 Switzerland, Alsace. 



'• What is then left for extra official work ? 



" I write to day this. 



"I found the noted autographs, some of which appear very 

 valuable, in Switzerland. Can you let me have an offer of £s for 

 it ? I think you British Mus. people collect such things. The 

 letters, no doubt, appear superior to me, the most the two on 

 language from W. v. Humboldt. 



" The professor, an old friend of mine, has no interest in pos- 

 sessing those things & likes much better £. You are such a kind- 

 hearted man, that I hope for your assistance, I would regard a 

 favour to me. 



*' I hope you'll not give cheese to eat to the plants ! f 



*' Best remembrances to your Triad. 



" Very faithfully yours, 

 '* Hamburg, " H. G. Reichenbach. 



>*Nov. 11, 74." 



Genial and friendly in his private relations, always willing and 

 anxious to oblige, and indeed at the service of any who needed his 

 help, it must be admitted that Eeichenbach viewed with anything 

 but favour the intrusion of others into what he regarded as his own 

 peculiar preserves; and other workers at Orckidacem received no 

 encouragement from him. This jealousy — for it can hardly be 

 called by any other name — led him to feel very acutely any 

 slight, real or apparent, which was put upon him, and probably 

 was the cause of the unfortunate bequest which will be further 

 discussed later on. He never made any secret of his dissatisfaction 

 at the want of recognition of his labours shown in Mr. Bentham's 

 monograph of the Urchidacew in the ' Genera Plantarum.' This want 

 is, indeed, manifest enough ; and it is only fair to point out that 

 elsewhere Mr. Bentham i)aid a very high tribute to Reichenbach's 

 work, and implied that he had been asked to assist in the monograph 

 for the * Genera.' It may be well to re]print this testimony of the 

 great systematist: — 



* His letters each year were always numbered, 

 t This refers to the experiments on Brosera, then in progress. 



o 2 



