Dr. Harvey, the A I goto gist. 133 



ceived an immediate answer, that he was exceedingly 

 glad to hear of the recovery of the plants. They 

 had been sent by steamer to Dr. Arnott, but lost on 

 the road, having perhaps been pilfered by some one 

 who, finding them of no marketable value, had flung 

 them away. Dr. Arnott was pressing the steamboat 

 company for what he considered their full value, 

 contrary to Dr. Harvey's inclination in the matter, 

 and the relief from this contention by the finding of 

 the parcel appears to have given Dr. Harvey even 

 more pleasure than the recovery of the parcel itself. 

 He wished to send Mr. Robertson some specimens of 

 Irish sea-weeds in return for the trouble he had taken. 

 The reply made to this proposal, in a letter dated 

 Sept. 22, 1857, may be quoted as characteristic : 



"Your kind offer of the plants I assure you I 

 greatly appreciate, but it is a favour I in no way 

 merit, having done nothing more than the common 

 duty that fell to my lot. Therefore I respectfully 

 decline accepting the plants. But^ away from that 

 matter, may I ask the very great favour of by times 

 troubling you for the name of a plant that I may find 

 unusually puzzling ? " 



It will be understood that troubling the kindly 

 Professor for the name of a puzzling weed in general 

 meant also presenting him with some rare specimen. 

 Indeed, giving rather than receiving has been all 

 through typical of Mr. Robertson's career as a 

 collector, although he is not so one-sided that he 

 cannot upon occasion gracefully and gratefully accept. 

 One of his wife's relations, Miss Mary Ann Alston, 

 was so obliging as to make a collection of sea-weeds 



