176 EETUKN TO ENGLAND : AND VISIT TO PARIS 
impudence to ask for Hepat. etc. in the same letter as he 
so coolly boasts his guilt and shame. I have promised, 
however, and shall send them, ' sans lettre ' however. I shall 
drop cJier confrere quietly, as our friend Berkeley has H.; and 
place him ' inter eos maxime vitandos.' . . . 
One of these Southern Algae, contributed by Darwin, was 
difficult to identify, and called forth the following to Harvey, 
November 11, 1844. 
Do not bother about Darwin's Alga till I tell you ; such 
a chap as that will, after all, require some of the double- 
barrelled powers here in London to solve it, and after I get 
your verdict I shall ask Berkeley. I shall be amused to 
know how many genera I can get it put in by a good many 
observers. When you have done with it I will have a crack 
at it myself, and after I get all verdicts separately, I will 
acquaint you. I shall let no one know that another has 
examined it. 
Meantime Sir William was keeping a prudent eye on the 
possibilities of any permanent post that might suit Joseph, 
whose own views on the subject are shown in a letter to Dr. 
Harvey (March 10, 1844), when, speaking of Harvey's candida- 
ture for the Dublin chair, he says : 
For my own part I should have preferred the Curatorship 
with half the salary, to the Professorship, which would 
have obhged me to give two courses of Botany, besides 
having the fear of being obliged to take Medical duties 
(i.e. Chnical lectures), for which I am neither competent nor 
incHned. I could not be a good Botanist and Medical man 
too. 
For a moment there seemed a chance of the Curatorship of 
the Dublin Herbarium, left vacant by the death of Dr. Coulter, 
till it was resolved that this be attached to the professorship 
of Botany, which would be given elsewhere. Robert Brown's 
health was failing, but succession to his important post at 
the British Museum was out of the question. * We must never 
think of Brown's situation for Joseph ' (writes Sir William 
