176 FIRST JOURNEY IN EUROPE. _ [1839, 
a series of drawings and engravings on which he has 
been long engaged, for a mémoire on the structure of 
roots, — splendid drawings; and he explained to me 
what I before could not form a clear idea about, how 
the curious emboitement or thickening of the walls of 
cells takes place by the development of new cells 
within the old. He showed me what I at once recog- 
nized as the so-called gridiron-tissue which I had seen 
in England, and I noticed that he explained it in the 
same way as Brown. He promised me copies for self 
and friends of the late paper of his on Embryologia 
in the “ Comptes Rendus,” just now read before the 
Institute (which will also be published with a part of 
the plates in the “ Annales des Sciences Naturelles” 
and finally completely in “ Archives du Muséum’), in 
which he says he has completely upset the new-fangled 
notions of Schleiden, Unger, etc. (adopted by End- 
licher) ; and, what is remarkable, his investigations on 
the subject were made before he knew of their views, 
and the publication is only a little hastened on account 
of theirs. This evening I have been with Webb, look- 
ing up Desfontaines and Poiret plants, also some of 
Spach. Did I tell you I have seen a good deal of 
Spach of late? He does not agree well with the other 
botanists of the Garden, but there are some good 
points about him, and he is mending every day. I 
pushed him rather hard upon some of his bad ways, 
particularly that of his changing specific names, which 
he bore very well. Webb says he is now falling into 
an opposite extreme as to species, and will hardly ad- 
mit anything to be distinct ; but Webb himself rather 
inclines to multiply species, I believe. I am to meet 
Spach at his place in the Garden to-morrow morning. 
He is married, lately, to Miss Legendre, a relative of 
dl 
* 
| 
