168 MEMOIR OF DR. EARVEY. 



them with the Sarracenia. I never admired yellow water-lilies 

 till I saw them here ; perhaps it is for want of something better, 

 but really the golden flowers are not ugly, and I persuade myself 

 they must be a different species from ours. I found also the 

 sweet-scented white water-lily, but poor and small, owing to the 

 drying up of the water-ponds. The bog is only just moist ; the 

 sun still powerful, and no rain comes. 



August 2nd. Yesterday I walked round by Point Pleasant, 

 the scene of my first day's ramble, and admired the views afresh, 

 and enjoyed the aroma of the spruce-woods ; but I gathered no 

 new plants, so I came home and sketched out the heads of a 

 lecture, and then read Macaulay till dinner-time. To-day I 

 hope to go on the water. 



New York, August 12th. " Well, sir, what do you think of 

 our city ?" the question I am asked daily by every new face, 

 and which I at present decline to answer to the new faces, 

 pleading the privilege of a stranger. I may tell you, however, 

 some first impressions. 'Tis like twenty Birkenheads and a 

 dozen Liverpools, with slices from London and Paris, all 

 huddled together, and painted bright red, with green windows. 

 Wide, dirty streets, where everything may be thrown, and 

 where it lies — the cleansing operation being performed by 

 chloride of lime, which salutes your nostrils as you pass along ; 

 — badly paved and rough ; no two houses of the same size and 

 form consecutively — a rambling city, extending for miles beyond 

 the end of the continuous houses. Busy streets in the older 

 part, well-built stores full of goods, and plenty of busy mankind 

 about them. Huge shops in Broadway, built of white marble, 

 and very spacious within. Huge quack medicine stores, and 

 grand houses of quack-doctors; some handsome churches, and 

 many funny-looking ones. The public buildings handsome 

 enough. On the whole, a great heap of houses, noises, and smells, 

 and 300,000 or 400,000 people. The whole passage up the bay 

 very beautiful ; richly wooded hills with villas and villages, and 

 a fine expanse of water. I have yet had no good view of the 

 country around, and but a distant peep of the shores of the 

 Hudson. The view which I have seen from a height of New York 

 is a waste of red brick, with spires at intervals, and nothing very 

 particular in the distance. The fashion with the wealthy here 

 is to build very grand houses ; and there are many which look 



