180 EETUEN TO ENGLAND : AND VISIT TO PARIS 



His first meeting with the famous Humboldt is thus 

 described : . 



On putting up here I sent in my card with Mr. Brown's 

 books to Baron Humboldt ; he was not at home, but 

 sent his flunkey (Scotice Footman) to my bedroom at 

 8 o'clock yesterday morning to say his master wished to 

 see me at 9. Ten minutes after his Lord had grown 

 impatient and sent to say he was all ready, so I went in 

 and saw to my horror a punchy little German, instead of a 

 Humboldt. There was no mistaking his head, however, which 

 is exceedingly like all the portraits, though now powdered 

 with white. I expected to see a fine fellow 6 feet without 

 his boots, who would make as few steps to get up Chimborazo 

 as thoughts to solve a problem. I cannot now at all fancy 

 his trotting along the Cordillera as I once supposed he 

 would have stalked. However, he received me most kindly 

 and made a great many enquiries about all at Kew and in 

 England, particularly about Mr. Brown and my father. 



In a letter of the same date to his sister Maria he draws 

 a keenly etched picture of several distinguished botanists then 

 in Paris, a companion picture to his careful comparison of 

 the Jardin des Plantes, the libraries, collections, and glass 

 houses with the establishment at Kew. 



I have seen a great many men here, but they are so 

 swallowed up, in general, with self-conceit that the only 

 way to make oneself agreeable is to hold your own tongue 

 and allow them to rattle away ; each begins by telling you 

 literally of the magnitude of their works, whilst of those 

 of their neighbours they seem to know very little indeed. 

 To this there are exceptions, of course. There are truly 

 a large concourse of Botanists here, but they do not appear 

 to me such sterling men as we have by any means. There 

 are six Botanists at the Jardin des Plantes, three heads 

 and three subs of the heads. Only one loves Botany for 

 its own sake, who is M. Mirbel, 1 who was out when I 



1 Charles Francois Brisseau de Mirbel (1776-1854), artist and botanist, 

 deserted science for ten years in favour of civil administration, but returned 

 in 1827 to a professorship at the Paris Museum of Natural History. He was 

 one of the pioneers in microscopic anatomy and vegetable physiology. Of the 

 friends Sir William had made among the French botanists when he visited Paris 

 in 1814, Mirbel and Bory were the only survivors. 



