24 MEMOIR OF DR. HARVEY. 



ing and sound judgment, united to a most winning simplicity 

 a v .id naivete. Beloved and honoured by her friends, it was natural 

 that she should possess the warm affections of her children, and 

 William especially was devotedly attached to her. His grief 

 for her loss was excessive, and even when time had placed this 

 bitter affliction in the softened distance, he could not allude to 

 his mother without emotion. Though highly valuing sympathy, 

 his deepest feelings were at all times hidden under silence and 

 reserve. He shrank from displaying them even when with his 

 most intimate friends, and generally had recourse to his pen for 

 the relief of expressing them. His correspondents often in this 

 respect enjoyed an advantage over those with whom he had 

 personal intercourse. Writing to Mr. Suliot in 1826, he says, 

 " When I was enjoying thy company in Ballitore, I used to 

 doubt which would be the happier time, when I was with thee, or 

 when I should be writing to thee from London ; for I thought I 

 could then say tilings which I had never before dared to do of what 

 I was before I knew thee, and of the enjoyments of home, &c." 



While under the above-mentioned sorrow, he turned for 

 solace to his favourite science, which then, and afterwards in 

 many gloomy days, shed over him a cheering and reviving 

 influence. In March, 1832, he writes to Mr. Fennell : — " It is 

 so long since we communed on paper that I seem to have 

 nothing to say. Strange as it may appear, a long silence often 

 diminishes matter to be communicated. This is the dead 

 season for us botanists, yet I have more to do in that way than 

 I can find time for, in investigating an enormous parcel of 

 Algte from Dr. Hooker, viz., all Carmichael's specimens, and 

 also sundry parcels from Mrs. Griffiths, of Torquay." 



His leisure hours were now devoted chiefly to the crypto- 

 gamic branches of his favourite science, and he was so for- 

 tunate as to be kept constantly supplied by Dr. Hooker with 

 packages of plants from- various quarters of the globe for his 

 investigation. This pleasing employment led to an acquaint- 

 ance with the labours of the greater part of those celebrated 

 botanists whose researches had been similarly -directed. In 

 many instances a correspondence resulted, and their collections 

 were sent for his inspection, which enabled him to add rapidly 

 to his store of knowledge. Thus he became placed in that 

 position of intercourse with those eminent men which had been 



