6 SPREAD OF EVOLUTION. [1S66. 



To Dr. Asa Gray. 



[May 3T, 1S63?]. 



" I have been looking at Nageli's work on this subject, 

 and am astonished to see that the angle is not always the same 

 in young shoots when the leaf-buds are first distinguishable, 

 as in full-grown branches. This shows, I think, that there 

 must be some potent cause for those angles which do occur : 

 I dare say there is some explanation as simple as that for the 

 angles of the Bees-cells." 



My father also corresponded with Dr. Hubert Airy and 

 was interested in his views on the subject, published in the 

 Royal Soc. Proceedings, 1873, p. 176. 



We now return to the year 1866. 



In November, when the prosecution of Governor Eyre 

 was dividing England into two bitterly opposed parties, he 

 wrote to Sir J. Hooker : — 



" You will shriek at me when you hear that I have just 

 subscribed to the Jamaica Committee." * 



On this subject. I quote from a letter of my brother's : — 



" With respect to Governor Eyre's conduct in Jamaica, 

 he felt strongly that J. S. Mill was right in prosecuting him. 

 I remember one evening, at my Uncle's, we were talking on 

 the subject, and as I happened to think it was too strong a 

 measure to prosecute Governor Eyre for murder, I made 

 some foolish remark about the prosecutors spending the sur- 

 plus of the fund in a dinner. My father turned on me almost 

 with fury, and told, me if those were my feelings, I had bet- 

 ter go back to Southampton ; the inhabitants having given a 

 dinner to Governor Eyre on his landing, but with which I 

 had had nothing to do." The end of the incident, as told by 

 my brother, is so characteristic of my father that I cannot 

 resist giving it, though it has no bearing on the point at issue. 

 " Next morning at 7 o'clock, or so, he came into my bed- 



* He subscribed ,£10. 



