94 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE 



name of a plant which some one had recommended as a 

 diuretic. It was Polygonum aviculare. I told him the 

 whole family to which it belongs is astringent. About 

 ten I accompanied Dr. Houston to a Surgical Hospital, 

 and afterwards strolled through the city, taking care to 

 visit the filthiest parts, which, on the whole, are not 

 nearly so bad as I expected to find them. 



At two I visited Dr. Evanson, who drove me out in 

 his car, along with a friend, to the Phoenix Park, the 

 Zoological Gardens, and a limestone quarry about four 

 miles out of town. The gardens are of considerable 

 extent and in a good position, being on rather high 

 ground, with an adjoining hollow and pond fringed 

 with Typha minor and other plants. They are laid 

 out with much less taste than the Liverpool animals, 

 and contain a smaller number of species. The 

 collection, however, is good, and infinitely superior 

 to a museum of five times the number. These 

 collections will in time teach zoological painters the 

 characteristic attitudes of animals, of which Audubon 

 and myself are the only persons who have succeeded 

 in attempting to afford an idea, in so far as regards 

 birds. As to stuffed animals, they are altogether, 

 entirely, and wholly absurd. I have not seen ten 

 quadrupeds nor five hundred birds that were even 

 tolerable. It is a difficult task to put up a skeleton 

 of a quadruped, and still more to stuff the skin of one. 

 Fools, who do not know the difficulty, readily find 

 faults with the performance, and often see faults where 



