87 
acquaintance, and one or other of these stores of culture and learning 
seemed always at call when he wished to point a moral or adorn a 
tale. The Philosopher was many a time summone om his 
breakfast-table and, what is more, from that “vasty deep” he 
seemed to come, and to enter into the actual being, fibre and 
marrow, of the speaker, so that the latter appeared his very 
alter ego. Under such circumstances, it is needless to remark, the 
botanical class-room was the very antithesis of being dry-as-dust ; 
the lectures sparkled alternately with satire and humour, while 
quotation, anecdote and reminiscence combined to drive home many 
a point which but for those associations would perchance have 
passed unheeded through the sieve-like student-mind. His black- 
board diagrams—like his word-paintings—were generally rapidly 
accomplished by means of the fewest possible master-strokes, but 
whenever these were made they pithily conveyed the exact 
impression intended, and he was a dull student who would remain 
untouched by the Professor’s almost boyish enthusiasm.” 
he affairs at the botanic gardens were quite pathetic. Instead 
of directing a scientific establishment he had to carry on a pre- 
carious retail-business in plants and seeds, and it is much to his 
credit that when he left in 1892, he could hand it over to the 
Municipal authorities with a small credit balance although he 
carried out a number of costly improvements which to a large extent 
had been paid for out of money earned by him. The reports which 
he presented to the Government made his position clear from year to 
year. To anybody acquainted with the local circumstances they 
are very interesting, and the grim humour frequently displayed by 
the writer would be amusing if it had not been a transparent cloak 
of his sorrows and anxieties. 
As far as Government support and the interest of the general 
1849, and the specimens, besides being very old, had suffered much 
from neglect and unskilful curati ; 
and mounted by Dr. Harvey, was allowed to lie for several years 
tions. This most simple of ——- was at last enforced by 
s arrival from Mauritius, on finding 
the extent to which the mischief had p ed. Under these 
circumsta 
15747 : B2 
