660 TRAVEL IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. [1876, 



with Eliot, A. Agassiz, and two Brazilians. They came 

 to the house, the door being open, and I received them 

 in the library. . . . Sargent was with me to take him 

 off my hands when I had to go. We treated him 

 as we should any gentleman, though I believe I once 

 addressed him as Your Majesty when flourishing the 

 poison-bottle under his nose. He is a large, square- 

 built, good-looking man of about my age, I think. 

 Never did I have more questions to answer in ten 

 minutes, nor questions more direct and to the point. 

 Taken into the herbarium, he recognized what it was, 

 complimented me by saying that my name was a well- 

 known one (I suppose Agassiz had put him up to 

 that), and I returned by saying that, in at least one 

 case, we were members of the same botanical society. 



" How many species of plants have you specimens 

 of?" About 65,000. 



" How do you arrange them ? " Cases opened, and 

 I began to show him. 



" Please let me see some plant." 



I pulled out the genus cover first at hand, which 

 happened to be European Saxifrages; opened. He 

 took up a sheet. 



" Saxifraga irrigua, European. I do not want to 

 see plants of Europe. Let me see an American 

 plant." 



I took another cover and showed Saxifraga peltata 

 of California. 



" Have you Sage-brush? " Yes. 



" Let me see Sage-brush." 



I took him across the room to the Artemisias, and 

 showed him, first, the one he saw so much of en route 

 to California ; second, the northern one to which 

 Lewis and Clark gave the name at first. 



