182 EETUEN TO ENGLAND : AND VISIT TO PAEIS 



other things are quite wilHng to send the first set to your 

 Herbarium. 



I spent a whole day with Decaisne [the third aide] over 

 his drawings, &c. ; they are most beautiful, masterly, and 

 truly botanical ; he is too a most amiable and excellent 

 fellow, is modest and well informed, by far the best Botanist 

 here on all points. He sent to Normandy on purpose for 

 Seaweed to show me his marvellous discovery of the animal- 

 cules in the organs of Fuci ; I suppose it is the most curious 

 of recent discoveries and opens the widest field for discovery. 

 I am quite astonished with what he has shown me. He has 

 arranged the Fuci of the Herbarium most beautifully. . . . 

 His whole pay is £62 per annum, and yet he takes my book ; 

 but every one here considers him a model of generosity. 



The question of buying Lenormand's collection of Algae 

 when so small a proportion were new, prompts the reluctant 

 advice to his father to * give up purchasing for the present 

 wholly. We have far more plants than we know how to keep 

 in order, far more expenses, which are annually increasing, 

 than we have the means to cover,' not to mention the growing 

 expense of books, for * plants without books are useless.' His 

 fortune was not, as the Paris botanists fondly imagined, equal 

 to that of Delessert, his only rival in purchasing in Europe, 

 and * I do feel quite sure that you cannot on your own means 

 support a Herbarium which is, as you wish, to kee'p pace vnth 

 the 'progress of Botany.' 



The following passages from a long letter to Harvey towards 

 the end of his stay in Paris deserve quotation as illustrating 

 not only the kindness of his hosts and their respect for his 

 father, but his own readiness to readjust his personal pre- 

 conceptions. 



February 25th, or thereabouts. 



I ought to have written to you before, from this great 

 mother of Babylons, but have been too busy enjoying 

 myself selfishly, to think much of my neighbours. This is 

 indeed a wonderful place, and the natives are most uncommon 

 polite, not only in word but in deed, for they pour upon 

 me such loads of pamphlets and little presents as obliges 



