102 REMINISCENCES. [ch. iv. 



forgive me for being so idle ; I am quite sillily interested in 

 the work." The intense pleasure he took in understanding 

 the adaptations for fertilisation is strongly shown in these 

 letters. He speaks in one of his letters of his intention of 

 working at Sundew as a rest from the Descent of Man. He 

 has described in his Recollections the strong satisfaction he 

 felt in solving the problem of heterostylism.* And I have 

 heard him mention that the Geology of South America gave 

 him almost more pleasure than anything else. It was per- 

 haps this delight in work requiring keen observation that 

 made him value praise given to his observing powers almost 

 more than appreciation of his other qualities. 



For books he had no respect, but merely considered them 

 as tools to be worked with. Thus he did not bind them, 

 and even when a paper book fell to pieces from use, as hap- 

 pened to Miiller's Befruchtung, he preserved it from com- 

 plete dissolution by putting a metal clip over its back. In 

 the same way he would cut a heavy book in half, to make it 

 more convenient to hold. He used to boast that he had 

 made Lyell publish the second edition of one of his books 

 in two volumes, instead of in one, by telling him how he 

 had been obliged to cut it in half. Pamphlets were often 

 treated even more severely than books, for he would tear 

 out, for the sake of saving room, all the pages except the 

 one that interested him. The consequence of all this 

 was, that his library was not ornamental, but was striking 

 from being so evidently a working collection of books. 



He was methodical in his manner of reading books and 

 pamphlets bearing on his own work. He had one shelf on 

 which were piled up the books he had not yet read, and 

 another to which they were transferred after having been 

 read, and before being catalogued. He would often groan 

 over his unread books, because there were so many which 

 he knew he should never read. Many a book was at once 

 transferred to the other heap, either marked with a cypher 

 at the end, to show that it contained no marked passages, 

 or inscribed, perhaps, " not read," or " only skimmed." 

 The books accumulated in the " read " heap until the 

 shelves overflowed, and then, with much lamenting, a day 

 was given up to the cataloguing. He disliked this work, 

 and as the necessity of undertaking the work became im- 



* That is to say, the sexual relations in such plants as the cowslip. 



