220 MEMOIR OF DR. HARVEY. 



was not all. Very, very early the kind-hearted sympathetic 

 nature of the individual man showed itself unmistakably. In 

 the letter in which he assured me a correspondent from a new 

 part of the coast was valuable, he said how glad he was to hear 

 ' another instance of pleasure derived from the study of natural 

 history, taken up for amusement either in sickness or sorrow,' 

 and sent a copy of his ' Seaside Book ' for my children. Dry 

 letters of information his never were, even on dry subjects. 

 While still addressing me as ' Dear Madam,' and treating of 

 nothing but Alga?, he would indulge in a little outbreak of fun." 



I am sorry that you were at the expense of sending the 

 large specimen (of Ectocarpus granulosus). You would have 

 seen it stated in " Phycologia Britannica " to grow " from four 

 to eight or ten inches long," and in deep water it may be ex- 

 pected to attain or surpass these limits. What would you say 

 to Delesseria hyjpoglossum four or five feet long, as it is in the 

 north of Ireland, or a single plant of Rhod. laciniata, covering 

 an ordinary round drawing-room table ! Yet such things be ! 



Yours very truly, 



Munchausen ! 



" Letters on marine botany, however, even when amusing as 

 well as instructive, are hardly in place in a memoir ; and it was 

 many years before our correspondence became less special in 

 its character. Yet it was through marine botany it did so. In 

 the winter of 1857-8 I wrote word that 1 was thinking of 

 compiling an introduction to the study of seaweeds, a ' Horn 

 Book ' of algological language, which should make his scientific 

 terms intelligible to young students and amateurs ; and I took 

 council with him on the subject. To what purpose, a few letters 

 selected from the mass of kind ones written to help me in my 

 work, and which will appear in their proper place, will show. 

 That his help was needed was enough for Dr. Harvey. He was 

 ready with it at all times and seasons, answering questions, giving 

 as well as lending books — specimens — anything, in short, which 

 he thought might be of use, and even anticipating what might be 

 wanted or wished for. It is a pleasure, though a melancholy 

 one, to record this now, and to express gratitude for what is, 

 alas ! a thing of the past. 



