CONTINUATION OF HOME LIFE. 45 



with him than I have often felt in company which I thought 

 measurelessly less about. He is tall, slight, and apparently about 

 fifty years of age (he must be more) ; quite grey, but not bald, 

 full of youthful vigour and strength of intellect. His eye 

 is usually dull and unremarkable, but when he speaks and wishes 

 to convey his meaning, it is full of depth and power, showing a 

 remarkably shrewd, sharp observation ; his voice low, and his 

 mode of delivery careless and dripping — an odd expression — 

 but I mean to say, like the uncertain tinkling of water — not a 

 continued flow, but now strong, now small. He certainly 

 struck me as the most learned botanist I have ever come across ; 

 but this not by any display of knowledge on his part, but by 

 chance observations that let you into his knowledge without 

 himself seeming to know it. First we talked algse, of course. 

 These he had studied in his early days on the coast of New 

 Holland and on the north of Ireland. His knowledge appeared 

 at once clear, comprehensive, and minute. I do not mean his 

 knowledge of the present state of the science, for as to names 

 and systems as now adopted he could not be expected to care 

 much. But of what he had known then he appeared to have a 

 clear remembrance, even of species. He showed me the famous 

 Claudea, and some other highly curious things. He has not 

 many algae, but all those he has are the most wonderful and 

 rarest of the tribe. Many are unpublished, and will probably 

 continue so till his death. We talked of ferns. Immediately he 

 began to speak of the elastic rings of the capsules, of the forms they 

 assume in different tribes ; on the reticulation of the seeds con- 

 sidered as generic character, and of the venation of fronds. On 

 all these he made many observations which could only strike one 

 who had deeply studied the subject. I felt myself miserably super- 

 ficial. I mentioned a genus of mosses. Instantly he spoke of 

 the curious structure of the cellules of the leaves, &c, &c. No 

 matter what subject we started, he fastened on the very inmost 

 part of it. He showed me a large collection of fossil woods, many 

 of them highly curious' and beautiful. These he has dissected 

 in the most exquisitely delicate manner, so that the most 

 insignificant vessels can be distinctly seen under the microscope, 

 and the fossils are cut so thin that they allow the perfect 

 transmission of light. I cannot enter into all he said and 

 showed of the little vessels in these antediluvian vegetables, but 



