22 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1839, 
his son, Joseph D. Hooker, was then a medical stu- 
dent; went to Arlary, December 26-7, to visit Arnott ; 
stayed till the day after New Year; thence to Edin- 
burgh for two or three days. Greville was the best 
botanist, but Graham was the professor, Balfour then 
a young botanist there. Heard old Monro, Wilson 
(Christopher North), Chalmers, Traill, Charles Bell, 
etc., lecture. On way south stopped at Melrose and 
Abbotsford; coach to Neweastle, Durham (over 
Sunday), and through Manchester, where rail was 
taken, to Birmingham and London. Took lodgings 
till some time in March. Dr. Boott was of course my 
best friend there. But Hooker and Joseph came up 
to London for a week. Hooker insisted on taking me 
in hand as of his party, and so I was introduced to all 
his friends; took me to the Royal Society, etc. ; dined 
one day with Bentham, to whose house I often went, 
and who gave me a full supply of letters to the bota- 
nists on the Continent. I worked a good deal at the 
British Museum; Robert Brown was very kind to me, 
and his assistant, J. J. Bennett, very useful, putting 
me up to all the old collections and how to consult 
them. At Linnzan Society, thanks to Boott, had every 
facility for the Linnean herbarium. Old Lambert 
too; he had the Hookers and myself at dinner, and 
gave me as good opportunity as he could to consult the 
Pursh plants, ete., in his herbarium, which, not long 
after, was scattered, but it was in his dining-room, 
which was very much lumbered, and to be reached 
only at certain hours. Lindley had me down for a 
day to his house at Turnham Green, and a little din- 
ner at the close. First visited Kew with the Hookers ; 
called on Francis Bauer, who lived in a house near 
the river ; found him at ninety making beautiful micro- 
