I865-] CLIMBING AND INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. 489 



ing 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 satisfaction. 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 be- 

 ing necessary to explain in detail about the spires in caught 

 tendrils running in opposite directions ; for the fact for a long 

 time confounded 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. 

 Mtiller, who has been stirred up to observe climbers and gives 

 me some curious cases of ^r#;zr/j-climbers, in which branches 

 are converted into tendrils, and then continue to grow and 

 throw put leaves and new branches, and then lose their ten- 

 dril character." (October 1865.) 



The paper on Climbing Plants was republished in 1875, as 

 a separate book. The author had been unable to give his 

 customary amount of care to the style of the original essay, 

 owing to the fact that it was written during a period of con- 



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

 fanuary number, 1866. 



