Botanical Society of Montreal. 77 



again visiting the " Instihit^'' my recollections of tlie Astronomer 

 would have been different from what they are, — I would have 

 thought of him as a surly, ill natured old man, who had spent so 

 much of his tune among other and colder planets, that all his 

 humanity had been frozen out of him, leaving him the most piti- 

 ful of all beings — Un esprit sans coeur. 



But I subsequently paid another visit, when Arago was then in 

 his place of perpetual Secretary. The Academie had assembled 

 to hear an eloge on his friend and co-laborer in Science, the 

 Astronomer Leopold de Buch of Berlin, recently deceased. The 

 old man's countenance presented a pleasing contrast to what it 

 did on a former occasion, it was now calm and even sorrowfal, — 

 he arose and alluded, in truly eloquent and feeling terms, to the 

 sad event which had deprived the scientific world of one of its 

 brightest ornaments, and had thinned the ranks of their associates. 

 No one present seemed to feel the force of his words more ftilly 

 than Arago himself. His voice trembled, and his hand shook so 

 as to agitate violently the paper which it held. I left the halls 

 of the Academie that evening, with feelings of admiration and 

 esteem, far higher than could have been produced by the display 

 of talents however exalted. 



W. H. H. 



Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Montreal. 



At a Meeting of the above Society, held on the 22nd day of 

 February last, the following Circular (which has been published 

 for transmission to Botanists and Botanical Societies) was read 

 and approved of, its object being to enlist the sympathy and aid 

 of Scientific men in the obtaining of a sum of money sufiicient to 

 raise a suitable monument to the memory of the late Frederick 

 Pursh, the celebrated Botanist. 



Montreal, Canada East, January, 1857. 



" In the course of last Spring, the attention of the Botanical 

 Society of Montreal was directed to the fact that Baron Pursh' 

 the celebrated botanist, who died in this City in 1820, was 

 interred in the Old Burying Ground on Papineau Uoad, without 

 any Monument. The Society immediately felt its obligation to 

 render tribute to so illustrious a name, and accordingly appointed 

 a Committee to transfer the remains to a new lot in Mount 



