4 
KT. 47.) TO W. J. HOOKER. 443 
taken to studying botany, which he never did before, 
and digs away at his dried specimens most persever- 
ingly. At first it went against the grain, and he used 
to wish himself far off in the woods. But he has kept 
on for six or eight months, and now generally prefers 
to find out a plant by his own skill, rather than have 
me tell him what it is; so he will be able to collect 
more understandingly, and the year passed here will 
not be lost time. 
Dr. Robert Brown died shortly after the date of this 
letter. In Dr. Gray’s memoir of him, he says : — 
“ Upon the death of Robert Brown, it was remarked 
that, next to Humboldt, his name adorned the list of a 
greater number of scientific societies than that of any 
other naturalist or philosopher. It was Humboldt 
himself who, many years ago, saluted Brown with the 
appellation, ‘ Botanicorum facile princeps,’ and the 
universal consent of botanists recognized and con- 
firmed the title. . . . Brown delighted to rise from a 
special case to gah and wide generalizations ; and 
was apt to draw most important and always irresistible 
conclusions from small selected data or particular 
points of structure. He had unequaled skill in find- 
ing decisive instances. . . . So all his discoveries and 
all his notes and observations are fertile far beyond 
the reader’s expectation. Perhaps no naturalist ever 
taught so much in writing so little. . . . Those who 
knew him as a man will bear unanimous testimony 
to the unvarying simplicity, truthfulness, and benevo- 
lence of his character, as well as to the singular-up- 
rightness of his judgment.” ! 
1 Scientific Papers of Asa Gray, vol. ii. 
