Saturday evening, February 2.... Brown has been very kind to me, in his peculiar way. I have seen him but twice since Hooker and I breakfasted with him, but I hope soon to be at work at the British Museum and to see more of him. He is very fond of gossip at his own fireside, and amused us extremely with his dry wit, but in company he is silent and reserved. I have found out also that it does not do to ask him directly any question about plants. He is, as old Menzies told us, the driest pump imaginable. But although he will not bear direct squeezing, yet by coaxing and very careful management any one he has confidence in may get a good deal out of him. He tells me that Petalanthera, Nutt., is a published genus, and promises to give me all the information about it I desire. I asked him some question about the manner in which the vessels of ferns uncoil. He at once remarked, “They unroll like a ribbon”! Quekett has been examining them, so has a botanist in India; all are much interested in them. I placed Bailey’s specimens afterwards in his hands and also some of the Infusoria, which he expressed himself much pleased with when I saw him at Lambert’s. By the way, the Infusoria were sent by Bailey himself. I delivered also the parcel for Lindley, and gave the rest I had mostly to Dr. Roget, Mr. Lyell,[66] and Francis Bauer, who were all very glad to get them. I have saved a few for Mr. Ward’s microscopical party which he is to give on Wednesday of week after next.... I shall also order, for Sullivant, Hooker’s “Icones Plantarum,” which will be continued, as Hooker furnishes all the matter for nothing and gives the plates, finding paper and everything. Although there is not so much detail as I could wish, yet it is becoming a very valuable collection for a student of natural orders.... Monday evening.--I have seen the original Taxus nucifera, of Thunberg, both leaves and fruit. Arnott should have paid more attention to it. It is very like Torreya! and doubtless a congener,--and so Brown insinuates. I will see more about it soon. A new edition of Lindley’s “Introduction to Botany” is preparing! Sullivant wants, I suppose, a microscope of single lenses--a good working instrument--and an achromatic. This last I think I shall procure for him in London, where they produce more perfect instruments than the French. Can you send Bentham the Lindernias? He wishes much to examine them; send good corollas. Arnott seems to think much more of Nees von Esenbeck than anybody else. It is generally thought he is in his dotage, and a sad, very sad splitter of straws.... I had some thoughts of going to Paris via Leyden, to see if I can coax anything out of Blume, but he seems to have behaved rather strangely to all the English botanists I have yet met with. You ask whom I liked best in Scotland: Hooker is all in all!