Cash : Wilson's Tours in Scotland and Ireland. 49 



In a former letter Prof. Hooker had asked Mr. Wilson to pay 

 attention to the rubi and willows of the south of Ireland, and this Mr. 

 Wilson seems to have done, for the Professor now writes : Mr. Borrer 

 will be happy to see you ; he has most kindly undertaken to describe 

 the roses, rubi, and willows for my British Flora. Among your roses 

 he finds a new one, which has gratified him much." 



During the remainder of Mr. Wilson's stay in Ireland (from the 

 beginning of October to the end of January) I do not find any record 

 in his Journal of new discoveries. It is, however, certain that within 

 this period he found in the district where he was then botanizing, the 

 moss which, first named by 'Wilson Glypliocarpa cernua in Hooker's 

 Journal of Botany, was afterwards re-named by Bruch and Schimper 

 after the discoverer, Bartramidula Wilsoni. He made a gathering of 

 Daltonia splachnoides at Turk mountain on the 4th October — the fruit 

 being then fully ripe — and also a gathering of two much commoner 

 mosses, Hypnum brevirostre and H. loreiim. On the 15th of that 

 month he records the finding of Daltonia splachnoides in abundance, 

 and he took the opportunity of laying in " a good supply." At that 

 time he observed Arbutus unedo in flower. On the 7th November, 

 Hypnum blandum ( H. illecebrum) was gathered near Dunkerron, and 

 in the neighbourhood of Kenmare. 



(To he continued.) 



LOUIS AGASSIZ. 

 By Rev, S. Fletcher Williams. 

 ( Concluded.) 



A LITTLE incident of Agassiz's life is told, which I m.erely mention 

 because it gives a key to his character. Once, in the small cabinet of 

 a college, which he was examining with a good deal of interest, and where 

 he was just as modest as if all the scientific treasures of the earth were 

 before his eyes, a singularly-formed turtle-shell from the Mississipi was 

 shown him, with the request that he would name the species to which 

 it belonged. Taking it into his hand, he said, with all the candour 

 of an unspoiled child, " I don't know this." The confession was 

 surprising, as the study of turtles was known to be a favourite branch 

 of investigation with him, and here he was profoundly learned. In a 

 few minutes, however, he quietly remarked — "Oh ! I see— it is a 

 malformation," which it really was, though it required vast knowledge 

 of this sort of creatures to detect the fact. We can all imagine how 

 the common-place professor, desirous of keeping up a name for know- 

 ledge, would have managed to conceal his ignorance. 



