CORRESPONDENCE WITH BRAUN. 35 



BRAUN TO AGASSIZ. 



Heidelberg, May^ 1827. 

 . . . On Thursday evening, the 10th, I 

 reached Heidelberg. The medical lectures 

 did not begin till the second week of May, so 

 that I have missed little, and almost regret 

 having returned so soon. ... I passed the 

 last afternoon in Basel very pleasantly with 

 Herr Roepper, to whom I must soon write. 

 He gave me a variety of specimens, showed 

 me many beautiful things, and told me much 

 that was instructive. He is a genuine and ex- 

 cellent botanist, and no mere collector like the 

 majority. Neither is he purely an observer 

 like Dr. Bischoff , but a man who thinks. . . . 

 Dr. Leuckart is in raptures about the eggs of 

 the " Hebammen Krote," and will raise them. 

 . . . Schweiz takes your place in our erudite 

 evening meetings. I have been lecturing lately 

 on the metamorphosis of plants, and Schimper 

 has propounded an entirely new and very inter- 

 esting theory, which will, no doubt, find favor 

 with you hereafter, about the significance of 

 the circular and longitudinal fibres in organ- 

 isms. Schimper is fruitful as ever in poetical 

 and philosophical ideas, and has just now ven- 

 tured upon a natural history of the mind. We 



