352 MEMOIR OF DR. HARVEY. 



To Mrs. Gatty. 

 3 Pery Square, Limerick, January 22nd, 1801. 

 1 see an excellent letter from " A. G." in last " Guardian " 

 about free churches. I have always thought well of them, but I 

 now see the evils to which they are open, and I agree that it 

 would be much better to have seats for the poor with their 

 families, and some free seats for strangers who might drop in. 

 Enid says that in a country church she was used to in Wexford 

 all the poor had their own seats just as well as the rich, and 

 were not confined to the lowest seats, but were mixed up and 

 down the church just as convenience settled it, some poor 

 farmers at the very head, close under the pulpit, &c. This is 

 what we want, equality of rank in the house of God, at the same 

 time that families may go together, each one knowing beforehand 

 where he is to sit. I thought A. G.'s words were right words. 

 Another A. G. (Asa Gray) writes from Boston of a great bazaar 

 which they had just triumphantly concluded in favour of the 

 army hospitals, and what do you think they netted of profits for 

 the charity ? Only 140,000 dollars = 28,000?. or so ! And that 

 in a city of about 150,000 inhabitants. I call it very 

 respectable. 



To Dr. Gray. 



Dublin, February 5th, 1864. 

 Your welcome letter of January 5 reached me in Limerick, 

 where we went the day before Christmas to spend a few holidays, 

 but where in three days after Mrs. H. was taken ill with low 

 fever, from which, thank God, she is now recovered. ... I have, 

 on the whole, had about six weeks of enforced idleness from 

 botany, and now that I return I find a multitude of parcels from 

 South Africa have accumulated, awaiting my inspection. I 

 have many correspondents in the Natal country and behind it 

 who send me heaps of new things, some of them very curious. 

 One new correspondent has sent a capital set, chiefly 

 Asclepiads and Orchids, both very numerous families in that 

 country, but also among them is a fine new Anemone, which 

 must stand two or three feet high, with large flowers. In 

 another bundle is a most singular genus of Loranthacse, with the 



