44 MEMOIR OF DR WRIGHT. 



after the shortest period of probation which was con- 

 sistent with the due observance of its rules. 



The hours which could be spared from the import- 

 ant duties which detained him in London, he had 

 thus the fullest opportunity of employing with advan- 

 tage and satisfaction. In the Royal Gardens at Kew, 

 that noble monument of the taste and munificence of 

 George III, Dr Wright possessed peculiar sources 

 of information and enjoyment, in watching the progress 

 of those natives of the torrid zone, which he had formerly 

 transmitted to Mr Aiton, the superintendant, as a con- 

 tribution to this splendid epitome of all that is rare and 

 valuable in the vegetable kingdom. In Mr Aiton 

 himself, the respectable author of the Hortus Kew- 

 ensis, he found an able and obliging assistant in his 

 botanical researches ; so that in the society of his 

 literary friends in London, and in his devotions at the 

 shrine of Flora, in this her favourite retreat, he found 

 alternate sources of solace, from those harassing cares 

 which threatened to deprive him, and the friends for 

 whom he had toiled, of the hard earned fruits of 

 twenty years' labour and anxiety. 



To an original thinker like Dr Wright, who ad- 

 mitted no dictum upon mere authority, nor any 

 theory without evidence, it was no inconsiderable ad- 

 vantage to have an opportunity of submitting the 

 views which had been elicited, under the peculiar cir- 

 cumstances of a tropical climate, and an insulated 

 situation, to the candid and confidential examination 

 of the highest names in the profession. At the stated 

 meetings of the London Medical Society, and at the 



