10 DE. HEIM. 



been broken for some time, now began to fail rapidly. 

 Day after day Dr. Ileim might have been seen on horse- 

 back, with his saddle-bags full of medicine, rounding the 

 stretch of land between Spandau and Tegel. But he 

 could do little for the shattered constitution and the 

 sixty years of his patient. He died in January 1779, 

 and was buried at Tegel. 



After the major's death Dr. Heim continued to come 

 as usual, not now bringing medicine, let us hope, but 

 with a book under his arm for Kunth, or possibly for 

 William and Alexander. Or perhaps it was a rare 

 flower from his conservatory. For as long ago as the 

 days of Yon Burgsdorf he was noted for his knowledge 

 of foreign trees and plants, and he helped the head 

 ranger to lay out the nurseries and plantations, which 

 the Humboldts were now enjoying. He would drop in 

 near their dinner hour, and being pressed would remain 

 to dinner, and often for hours after, instructing the boys 

 in botany, and explaining to them the twenty-four classes 

 of the system of Linnaeus. They could now know the 

 names, classes, and characteristics of the flowers, which 

 they had before admired ignorantly. William was con- 

 sidered the cleverest, because he could easily compre- 

 hend the doctor's lessons, and retain the botanical names : 

 Alexander was not, or did not seem, so apt. The 

 brothers went with the doctor in his excursions about 

 the neighbourhood, and in May 1783, were present with 

 him in Spandau, where, they saw Frederick the Great 

 reviewing his grenadiers — one of his annual amuse- 

 ments. 



But grand reviews, country excursions, after-dinner 

 chats on botany, and the cosy comforts' of home, must 



