Dear Deane:- 
468 Hope Street, 
Providence, E.I. 
Oct.27,'09. 
Yours of the 25th is at hand. In reply I hardly know 
what to say. Perhap>s it will he best to state a few facts in 
regard to your (as well as my) friend, which have come to my notice. 
I think, as you say, he has entirely lost all interest in botany. 
Ever since he has been here at Brown he has had a room in the next 
floor, directly over the Herbarium, so the Herbarium, the Department, 
and the Botanical Library, have all been very accessible, yet, 
so far as I know, he has never been in the Herbarium except for 
about five minutes when he was being shown around just prior to 
assuming his duties here. All of his books, except some on Sex 
S ociology I believe, have long since been given to the Brown Library. 
Soon after he came here he asked me v/here he could get some 
twigs of Linden. He wanted them to show at a lecture to illustrate 
his theory of the sympodial evoliition of man. I told him where he 
could get some. At the lecture,at which I was present, he stated 
±xk that- he had tried to ger some Linden twigs, had looked at every 
~k ree within five miles of the college and hadn't yet seen a Linden. 
The European Linden is a common tree on the older"streets of Protfi- 
denee; probably there are more than a hundred within a quarter of 
a mile of the college. One cannot pass from the University Admin¬ 
istration Biiilding to the University Librafy without passing under 
several. I have always regarded this as a pretty good joke (or 
"roast T ) on our mutual friend, whom I meet very often, for we 
labor in the same building. 
I, really don’t know just how the Oouncil of the Hew England Club 
looks at such cases as this, whether past achievement takes prece¬ 
dence over present interest, or vice versa, or neither, or both. 
^ Our friend was elected to the honorary scientific society (Sigma 
Zi .■ last June and he declined the election on the ground that he 
had had too many honors thrust upon him and he was tired of them. 
I don't know as I can answer your question "What do you think?" 
anymore definitely than I have, for, as I intimated at first, 
I really don't know what to think. 
■■ saw v/.i'/.B. today and he told me of the nice long letters you 
and Land have been writing him. He looks first rate and appears 
to feel first rate unless some one askes him how he feels. 
Hope to see you, next week Friday. 
Cordially, 
