HOME LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 217 



forward to a plentiful crop. The potato disease is here and 

 there through the country, but nowhere as yet very severe, and 

 though some of the crop will be lost, I hope fully three-fourths 

 will be saved. The quality of the potatoes this year is as good 

 as I ever remember it. 



The month of August was passed by Dr. Harvey in company 

 with some relatives at Cushendall, a village on the northern 

 shore of the county of Antrim, where he describes his time as 

 being spent, "walking about" and the "dirty work of picking 

 and cleaning seaweeds." While at this place he received 

 a letter from Mrs. Alfred Gatty, a lady well known in the 

 literary world. He found in the intellectual mind of his new 

 correspondent a kindred delight in the kingdoms of nature, 

 from which she has drawn so many charming "Parables," 

 attractive alike to both young and old. 



Their intimacy increased with their knowledge of each other, 

 and gradually ripened into warm friendship, and the survivor's 

 affectionate appreciation of her friend is touchingly displayed in 

 the interesting tribute to his memory already noticed in the 

 Preface to this Memoir. 



Mrs. Gatty has kindly furnished the editor with the following 

 brief account of the commencement of her acqaintance with 

 Dr. Harvey : — 



"In the summer of 1850 I found accidentally at Filey, in 

 Yorkshire, a specimen of what I took to be the Chrysymenia 

 Orcadensis of Dr. Harvey's ' Manual,' in fruit. Fruit on this 

 plant was a desideratum, none having been observed on the 

 Orkney specimen, and some uncertainty hanging about the 

 species in consequence. But I knew so little of Algae at the 

 time, that I had no confidence in my own opinion, and it was not 

 till after some weeks' hesitation that I ventured on what then 

 seemed the formidable 1 step of addressing Dr. Harvey personally 

 on the subject, enclosing a sketch of the supposed Chrysymenia, 

 and offering to send the plant itself, if worth his attention. 



" It is an old story, one that has happened to hundreds of 



1 A winter of illness at Hastings, many solitary evenings of which had been 

 cheered and charmed by the loan of the thirty-eight numbers then out, of the 

 Phycdogia Britannica, had taught me to look upon Dr. Harvey as one of the 

 great men of the day. Every one is so who is master in his own line. 



