378 SECOND JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1850, 



able to walk without difficulty ; and to-day, just four 

 weeks after the accident, I have begun to work at 

 plants again, in Sir William Hooker's herbarium. 

 But my side is still tender, and my strength is not 

 great. 



Having said thus much of my bodily condition, let 

 me no longer delay to thank you heartily for the very 

 unexpected compliment that you have caused to be 

 paid me, and to ask you to convey, in fitting terms, my 

 grateful acknowledgments to the Societe de Physique 

 et d'Histoire Naturelle, for the honor they have con- 

 ferred upon me in choosing me as one of their cor- 

 responding members. I was not aware that I had 

 rendered any particular services to your society, but I 

 shall be very glad to do so if any opportunity offers. 

 Although, generally, I am far from coveting compli- 

 ments of this kind, I assure you I am much pleased 

 to be thus associated with several valued personal 

 friends, my contemporaries, and with such highly 

 honored names of the past generation. . . . 



We had eight weeks of most pleasant and profitable 

 labor at Pontrilas, and Mr. Bentham has rendered me 

 invaluable assistance. 



Mrs. Gray joins me in the expression of kind re- 

 membrances and regard to Madame De Candolle and 

 yourself. 



Believe me to remain, ever most sincerely yours, 



Asa Gray. 



Since Dr. Gray was so near Sir WiUiam, and work- 

 ing in the herbarium almost every day, there was much 

 meeting of old friends, and of many of the men distin- 

 guished in botany. Robert Brown, with his keen ob- 

 servation and dry wit, he saw constantly at the British 



