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But the interest of the book, as we have already said, centres 

 in the botanical details, which indeed constitute its largest portion : 

 and of these none are pleasanter reading than the accounts of 

 Gray's visits to England. The first of these took place in the 

 winter of 1839-40, when Gray was in his twenty-eighth year. He 

 was the guest of W. J. Hooker in Glasgow until Christmas, after 

 which he made his way to London. On this visit he contracted the 

 friendship with the Hookers, Bentham, Brown, and other botanists, 

 which endured until one or other was removed by death. The 

 summary of this which he gives in his fragments of autobiography 

 will be read with interest : — 



"hS^l" 



ced to all 1 



introduced to all his friends ; took me to the Koyal Society, 

 house I often went, and who gave 



sistant, J. J. Bennett, i 



rium. Old La) 

 e as good opportunit; 



nks to Boott, had every facility 



irs. Lindley had me down for a day to his house at Turnham 

 i ■.■ \i 



called on Francis Bauer, who lived in a house near the river; found him at 



: 



close Square in Wapping, and whose cultivation of plants in closed cases 

 . 



then over ninety ; he lived, with a housekeeper, at Maida Vale, or somewhere 

 beyond Kensington." 



Gray's Journal for this period is also printed ; it contains fuller 

 details of this memorable visit, and graphic little sketches of the 

 botanists he met. He breakfasted with Eobert Brown, "and stayed 

 with him until 4 o'clock in the afternoon ! I have a good deal to 

 say al out him, but not here. He is a curious man in other things 

 besides botany. He has a few choice paintings, and a few exquisite 

 engravings he has picked up on the Continent." Later he writes :— 



" Brown has been very kind to me, in his peculiar way. He is very fond of 

 gossip at his own fireside, and amused u- . - m m, h with his dry wit, but in 

 ( . . , . . , ; :, - . ; : ■ : V: • ; . M 



driest pump imaginable. But although he will not bear direct squeezing 



a good deal out of him. I asked him some question abou 

 the vessels of ferns uncoil. He at once remarked, ' They uuw. uo .« * uu WU . 



Gray began on this, his first visit, that examination of types in 

 the Banksian Herbarium and elsewhere which he assiduously 

 carried on during his subsequent visits to London. "Brown was 

 there most of the time," he says on one occasion, "but did very 

 little except to read the newspaper and crack his jokes." " Brown 

 is extremely tender of other persons' feelings," he says later; and 



