Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/71

 THE RANDALL FAMILY 63

With Dr. Harris, too, he became intimately associated in the pursuit of entomology, sending to him hundreds of specimens of insects, which were acknowledged in long lists by genus and species. At the end of one of these lists. Dr. Harris wrote, in May, 1836: "You will see by the foregoing that a very large number of your Hymenop- tera are new to me. Probably the same may be the case with the Diptera, but I have not had time to examine them. These remarks may induce you to collect as many specimens in these orders as possible, for I am sure you will be able to add much that is new and highly interest- ing in these neglected portions of our entomology." Dr. Harris, who was born at Dorchester in 1795 and died at Cambridge in 1856, was appointed Librarian of Harvard College in 183 1, gave instruction in botany and natural history, founded the Natural History Society among the undergraduates, received in 1837 the appointment of Commissioner for a zoological and botanical survey of Massachusetts, published a catalogue of 2,350 species of Massachusetts insects, and made a highly important and still useful report on " Insects Injurious to Vegeta- tion " which was printed by the State in 1841 (enlarged edition in 1852). To the end of his life, he and Randall maintained the friendliest relations, long after the latter had discontinued the active prosecution of his own investi- gations ; and I well remember the affectionately respectful tone in which he always spoke of the scientific and per- sonal merits of " my old friend. Dr. Harris."

The third intimacy alluded to was that with Madam Craigie, one of the most notable personalities at that time in the little university town. Her husband. Colonel Craigie, as I used to hear, had been a rich contractor in the Revolutionary War, and had purchased the famous

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