68 EEMINISCENCES. [Cfl. IV. 



wonderful energy, took the pains to learn to cut sections of 

 Toots and leaves. His hand was not steady enongh to hold the 

 object to be cut, and he employed a common microtome, in 

 which the pith for holding the object was clamped, and the razor 

 slid on a glass surface. He used to laugh at himself, and at 

 his own skill in section-cutting, at which he would say ho 

 was " speechless with admiration." On the other hand, he 

 must have had accuracy of eye and power of co-ordinating his 

 movements, since he was a good shot with a gun as a young 

 man, and as a boy was skilful in throwing. He once killed a 

 hare sitting in the flower-garden at Shrewsbury by throwing a 

 marble at it, and, as a man, he killed a cross-beak with a stone. 

 He was so unhappy at having uselessly killed the cross-beak 

 that he did not mention it for years, and then explained that ho 

 should never have thrown at it if he had not felt sure that his 

 old skill had gone from him. 



His beard was full and almost untrimmed, the hair being 

 grey and white, fine rather than coarse, and wavy or frizzled. 

 His moustache was somewhat disfigured by being cut short and 

 square across. He became very bald, having only a fringe of 

 dark hair behind. 



His face was ruddy in colour, and this perhaps made people 

 think him less of an invalid than he was. He wrote to Sir 

 Joseph Hooker (June 13, 1849), " Every one tells me that I 

 look quite blooming and beautiful; and most think I am 

 shamming, but you have never been one of those." And it 

 must be remembered that at this time he was misorably ill, far 

 worse than in later years. His eyes were bluish grey under 

 deep overhanging brows, with thick, bushy projecting eye- 

 brows. His high forehead was deeply wrinkled, but otberwise 

 his face was not much marked or lined. His expression showed 

 no signs of the continual discomfort he suffered. 



When he was excited with pleasant talk his whole manner 

 was wonderfully bright and animated, and his face shared to 

 the full in the general animation. His laugh was a free and 

 sounding peal, like that of a man who gives himself sympa- 

 thetically and with enjoyment to the person and the thing 

 which have amused him. He often used some sort of gesture 

 with his laugh, lifting up his hands or bringing one down with 

 a slap. I think, generally speaking, he was given to gesture, 

 and often used his hands in explaining anything (e.g. the 

 fertilisation of a flower) in a way that seemed rather an aid 

 to himself than to the listener. He did this on occasions 

 when most people would illustrate their explanations by means 

 of a rough pencil sketch. 



