CAPÍTULO IX. — LA VIDA EN DOWN.

amistad y la bondad de alguien a quien se ama, que ese mismo hecho, contado tal como lo contasteis, hizo que me encendiera de placer hasta latir con fuerza mi propio corazón. Creedme, no olvidaré pronto el placer que me dio vuestra carta. Tan sincera y afectuosa simpatía vale más que todas las medallas que se hayan acuñado o se acuñen jamás. De nuevo, mi querido Hooker, os doy las gracias. Espero que Lindley > (John Lindley, 1799-1865, was the son of a nurseryman near Norwich, through whose failure in business he was thrown at the age of twenty on his own resources. He was befriended by Sir W. Hooker, and employed as assistant librarian by Sir J. Banks. He seems to have had enormous capacity of work, and is said to have translated Richard's 'Analyse du Fruit' at one sitting of two days and three nights. He became Assistant-Secretary to the Horticultural Society, and in 1829 was appointed Professor of Botany at University College, a post which he held for upwards of thirty years. His writings are numerous: the best known being perhaps his 'Vegetable Kingdom,' published in 1846. His influence in helping to introduce the natural system of classification was considerable, and he brought "all the weight of his teaching and all the force of his controversial powers to support it," as against the Linnean system universally taught in the earlier part of his career. Sachs points out (Geschichte der Botanik, 1875, page 161), that though Lindley adopted in the main a sound classification of plants, he only did so by abandoning his own theoretical principle that the physiological importance of an organ is a measure of its classificatory value.) nunca se entere de que fue competidor mío; porque en verdad resulta casi RIDÍCULO (por supuesto, jamás repetiríais que he dicho esto, pues