3l6 CLIMBING AND [1865. 



" It is working hours, but I am trying to take a day's 

 holiday, for I finished and despatched yesterday my climbing 

 paper. For the last ten days I have done nothing but correct 

 refractory sentences, and I loathe the whole subject." 



A letter to Dr. Gray, April 9, 1865, has a word or two on 

 the subject. 



" I have begun correcting proofs of my paper on ' Climbing 

 Plants.' I suppose I shall be able to send you a copy in four 

 or five weeks. I think it contains a good deal new and some 

 curious points, but it is so fearfully long, that no one will ever 

 read it. If, however, you do not skim through it, you will be 

 an unnatural parent, for it is your child." 



Dr. Gray not only read it but approved of it, to my father's 

 great satisfaction, as the following extracts show : 



" I was much pleased to get your letter of July 24th. Now 

 that I can do nothing, I maunder over old subjects, and your 

 approbation of my climbing paper gives me very great satis- 

 faction. I made my observations when I could do nothing 

 else and much enjoyed it, but always doubted whether' they 

 were worth publishing. I demur to its not being necessary 

 to explain in detail about the spires in caught tendrils run- 

 ning in opposite directions ; for the fact for a long time con- 

 founded me, and I have found it difficult enough to explain 

 the cause to two or three persons." (Aug. 15, 1865.) 



" I received yesterday your article * on climbers, and it has 

 pleased me in an extraordinary and even silly manner. You 

 pay me a superb compliment, and as I have just said to my 

 wife, I think my friends must perceive that I like praise, 

 they give me such hearty doses. I always admire your skill 

 in reviews or abstracts, and you have done this article ex- 

 cellently and given the whole essence of my paper I 



have had a letter from a good Zoologist in S. Brazil, F. 

 Miiller, who has been stirred up to observe climbers and 



* In the September number of ' Silliman's Journal,' concluded in the 

 January number, 1866. 



