178 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



observed that the Orchis latifolia has, occasionally, a very dis- 

 agreeable hircine scent. This Orchis is in great plenty about 

 Besborough ; but this peculiar scent I do not find taken notice 

 of by any of you botanic writers. The scent is more frequent 

 when the x^lant is pulled and put into water. It grows then so 

 strong, it is very unpleasant in a room ; we were forced to throw 

 them out. I have also perceived it on the ground, but that 

 seldom. The puzzling circumstance is that many of the same 

 Orchises, scattered close about, have no smell. I have examined 

 numbers, to try whether there was any difference to make out a 

 variety ; — never could perceive the least. I have watched them 

 for several days, to see whether it was occasioned by the different 

 stage of the growth, — but to no purpose ; that seemed not to 

 produce any change. Linnaeus says, hracteis flore longiorihus ; 

 that is not the case in any plants I have ever seen, nor in the 

 figure in Miller's Illustr., nor in Curtis. The figure in Curtis is 

 much better drawn and more faithful than in Miller. The latter 

 gives the root palmated ; Curtis's and all the real plants I have 

 found have two bulbs. These disagreements ought to be 

 rectified." 



In a letter dated June 30, 1802, Caldwell expresses anxiety 

 concerning Smith's health, of which an unsatisfactory account 

 was given him by Dawson Turner, who was then in Ireland. 

 " Mr. Turner is a very pleasant lively young man ; his wife seems 

 a most amiable well-inform'd woman. They have been very busy 

 since they came, but the chief objects of the journey he was 

 obliged to give up. I was out one excursion with him, he was 

 polite enough at least to say he was much gratified, and yet I 

 don't think he made any rich discoveries. His Lichens and 

 Mosses are so minute and difficult I give them up, it is a part of 

 Botany I have not attended to." A further passage may be cited 

 as an example of Caldwell's style : " Summer I believe may be 

 given up for this year, the weather is really so cold I have been 

 glad to put on my fire again ; when the servants in the kitchen 

 have constantly a cheerful hearth I have no notion why the gentle- 

 man above stairs should sit shivering because the almanack tells 

 him it is the beginning of July." In the autumn of this year 

 Caldwell visited Harrogate for his health ; his letter thence 

 contains nothing of botanical interest. 



On July 8, 1803, Caldwell arranges to meet Smith in Liverpool, 

 and suggests that the latter might visit Dublin and perhaps 

 deliver a course of lectures •' to encourage and diffuse the taste for 

 a favourite science." He speaks of his " tolerably large library, 

 very miscellaneous and diverting," and of " an immense collection 

 of prints and drawings " which had lately been bequeathed to 

 him by the "first clerk in the Secretary of State's office in the 

 Castle " — a man of French Huguenot descent, named Mangin, to 

 whom Caldwell was greatly attached. This we learn from the 

 letter of 21 Oct., in which Caldwell expresses his regret at not 

 having met Smith in Liverpool. 



On July 11, 1804, Caldwell writes of a visit to Cambridge, 



