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290 JOHN RALFS.
the larger " Floras," but was intended as a guide to the quick
determination of species ; and the simple straightfonvard language
employed, the judicious selection of practical characters, and the
small compass of the book admirably adapted it to the purposes of
a pocket manual. At the commencement of 1841 Mr. Ealfs opened
a correspondence with the Eev. M. J. Berkeley, whom he had met
some years previously ; this resulted in a close friendship, and
Ralfs and Berkeley appear to have constantly consulted one another
on questions connected with the Algae and Fungi. Berkeley's
correspondence (preserved in the Botanical Department of the
British Museum) contains some hundi-eds of letters from Ealfs,
many of them consisting of four closely-written quarto pages, and
containing pen-and-ink drawings. Ealfs seemed then to have
settled down to the study of the Desmids and Diatoms, but
continued to give a general attention to Fungi and other plants.
The summers of 184:1 and several subsequent years were spent
in visits to Ilfracombe and various parts of Wales, his longest stay
usually being at Dolgelly. In 1842 he was accompanied on his
Welsh trip by Borrer. In this year Ealfs sent a description
of Desmidium compressum (a new species) to Dr. Balfour for the
Botanical Society of Edniburgh. In 1843-4-5 he contributed to
the same Society a series of papers on the Desmids and Diatoms,
and in one of them he mentions that the total number of Desmids
previously recorded in the British Floras was four—two Desmidia
and two Ruastra. These papers were published in the 'Annals of
Natural History' and in the 'Transactions' of the Society. They
contain figures and descriptions of a number of species of Diatoms,
and over sixty Desmids, of which sixteen were new. In 1845 also
appeared his paper, "On the genera Spinilina and Colecx-hccte,"
A. N. H. xvi. p. 308.
During this period Hassall was working at the Confervas, and
corresponded with Ealfs, who in his first letter suggested that they
should render each other assistance in their respective fields of work
and the correspondence was carried on under the impression, on
Ealfs's part, that this Avas a definite understanding. In 1844 he
was much surprised, on receiving the prospectus of Hassall's forthcoming
book, to find that it was intended to include the Desmids
and Diatoms. A suggestion appears to have been made by a friend
of both that the book should be written jointly ; but it seems that
Hassall would not hear of this, and considered himself very badly
used because Ealfs was not inclined to hand over all his information
on the Diatoms and Desmids for publication under Hassall's name ;
and in one of his letters to Berkeley he remarked that Ealfs was the
most unreasonable man that he ever had to do with. In the work
which appeared in 1845, are evident copies, and vilely bad ones, of
Ealfs's figures in the 'Annals,' with "Hassall del." at the foot of
the i)lates. In the Introduction, while acknowledging indebtedness
to Berkeley and others, not a word was said of what was owed to
Ealfs's work. Hassall was the only man of whom we recollect
Mr. Ealfs speaking with any degree of bitterness.
In 1845 Ealfs was apparently suffering from the results of a
severe accident, for, from a letter written from Brislington, we find