226 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
and a mineralogist, he was interested in all forms of organic life, and 
made himself familiar, to a certain extent, with the fauna and flora 
immediately about him, especially the flora ; and his herbarium, the 
result of his lifetime collections, contained very nearly all the known 
Hingham plants, except the cryptogamous ones. I well remember, 
fifty years ago when we were both young and enthusiastic, the 
botanical walks which we took in the quiet country around Boston, 
armed with Dr. Bigelow’s little Florida Bostoniensis as our Manual, 
in regions now covered with solid blocks of noisy houses and stores ; 
and our wanderings over Nantasket Beach, after violent storms, 
collecting the sea-urchin's and shells thrown up by the waves, before 
there was a house to be seen in the desolate grandeur around. 
Those were the days of small things. 
It was at his suggestion that I became a member of this Society; 
and, from that time forth, his companion and co-student for a lifetime. 
Whenever we met, there were always some questions to ask, some 
doubts to solve; so that we were closely united by the double 
attraction of friendship and study. Many a night, in those long by¬ 
gone times, have we sat up into the small hours, exchanging thoughts, 
opinions, and hypotheses. Our last active work together was the 
re-examination of the Hingham Flora, as the basis of a list to be 
incorporated with the History of Hingham, published in 1893. It 
was a renewal of our youthful pleasures,—as we two old men 
wandered slowly and laboriously over the regions where, in the 
plenitude of our young strength and ardor, we first collected the 
plants, since so familiar. 
Mr. Bouve was blessed with a cheerful, buoyant nature, which 
those who only knew him in his later years of physical and mental 
suffering, might scarcely believe. He was fond of being with 
young people, fond of wit, humor, mirth, and merriment, and all 
pleasant social enjoyments. He loved life ; and even when lying 
upon his last bed of sickness, he held to it with a contentedness and 
satisfaction which were evident when he experienced some tem¬ 
porary relief from his bodily ailments. 
He was a truly religious man, though lie made no proselyting 
display of his convictions. He believed in and worshiped a 
paternal, loving God. When he was preparing, for the Hingham 
History, the descriptive headings of the different orders of plants, he 
frequently availed himself of an opportunity to insert words of 
gratitude to the great Giver of all, for the beauty of the Nature he 
