44 



The Naturalist. 



SCOTLAND AND IRELAND : 1829-30. 

 An invitation to Mr. Wilson from Prof. Hooker resulted in his 

 paying a second visit to Glasgow and the Highlands in the summer of 

 1829, prior to his making an extended trip through the south of 

 Ireland. There was no want of cordiality in the invitation. Mr. 

 Wilson's health had been for a long time delicate, and Professor 

 Hooker desired that he should undertake the journey, hoping that he 

 would profit by it physically. " I still hope,'' he wrote (Jan. 20th, 

 1829) " that in the summer your health and your inclination will 

 allow you to come northwards. I wish you to know more of Mr. 

 A.rnott, and something of Dr. Wallich, and I desire to have you with 

 us again in the Highlands," Mr. Wilson v/as preparing critical notes 

 for the^rst volume of Dr. Hooker's forthcoming British' Flo7'a. Take 

 ample time," Dr. Hooker wrote (Feb. 2, 1829) " in selecting notes 

 and specimens of plants for me ; and I know well, from some little 

 experience, how valuable they will be to me and the public. * * Keep 

 your mind and your time occupied in the way you do now, and be 

 assured that the result will be advantageous both to your health and to 

 science." Acknowledging a parcel of jjlants, accompanied with notes, 

 Professor Hooker wrote : " The plants and the notes upon them are 

 exactly what I could wish them to be, and such as I could receive 

 from no one else. But I fear you have devoted your attention too 

 zealously to this subject. In regard both to the work on mosses, and 

 the British Flora, it will be yet twelve months before they are pub- 

 lished, and it is both to my interest and to that of the public to go to 

 press as late as possible. There is, therefore, abundance of time for 

 any observations that occur to you, and I had much rather that you 

 would relax from your ardent devotion to the descriptive department 

 of botany, and spend your time in the country, or where you will be 

 more freed from mental occupation. By this means you will, I trust, 

 sufficiently recover your health to enable you to undertake a vogage 

 from Liverpool to Glasgov/, and then go into the Highlands with me 

 and some brother botanists. There, too, we may gather plants, but, 

 then, you must do as I do — you must consider this excursion as 

 undertaken for the purpose of pleasure, and not of hard study. We 

 v/ili then, too, talk about plants, without letting them occupy too 

 much of our attention. * * * Now, my dear friend, let me assure 

 you that you will render me the greatest service by withdrawing for a 

 time from all mental occupation, and thus fitting yourseK for a visit to 

 the North, which you know, two years ago, was beneficial to your 

 health. I am expecting Mr. Henslow, of Cambridge, will join our 



