.ET. 30.] AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 27 



It was, I think, in the spring of 1841 that the first 

 part of the " Compositse " was published, i. e., vol. ii. 

 pp. 1-184 ; the second part, to p. 400, was out the 

 next spring. Sometime in January, 1842, I made a 

 visit of two or three days to B. D. Greene in Boston ; 

 the first time I ever saw Boston. Came out one day 

 to Cambridge, dined with his father-in-law, President 

 Quincy ; the company to meet us was Professor Chan- 

 ning 1 and Professor Treadwell.^ Sometime in April, 

 I received a letter from President Quincy, telling me 

 that the Corporation of the university would elect me 

 Fisher professor of natural history if I would before- 

 hand signify my acceptance. The endowment then 

 yielded fifteen hundred doUars a year. I was to have 

 a thousand and allow the rest to accumulate for a 

 while. Meanwhile I was to give only a course of botani- 

 cal lectures, in the second spring term, and look after 

 the Garden. But more work was soon added. I came 

 in July, in the midst of vacation, before Commence- 

 ment, which was then in September ; got lodgings, with 

 room for my then small herbarium, in the house of 

 Deacon Munroe. Went late in September on an excur- 

 sion to Mormt Washington, by way of the Notch, along 

 with Tuckerman, then living at his father's in Boston. 

 Worked away at " Composita;," and in the winter 

 went to New York and carried the remainder through 

 the press. It was issued in February, 1843. 



I must not forget that my little " Elements of Bot- 

 any" had been sold out, and the publishers, CarviU, had 

 gone out of business or died. I prepared in 1841-42 



^ Edward T. Channing ; professor of rhetoric and oratory at Har- 

 vard University. 



^ Daniel Treadwell ; professor in Harvard University of applied 

 physics ; distinguished inventor in mechanics, especially in the weld- 

 ing of steel. 



