ch. xvi.] FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. 327 



" A few words about the stove-plants ; they do so amuse 

 me. I have crawled to see them two or three times. Will 

 you correct and answer, and return enclosed. I have 

 hunted in all my books and cannot find these names, and I 

 like much to know the family." His difficulty with regard 

 to the names of plants is illustrated, with regard to a Lupine 

 on which he was at work, in an extract from a letter (July 

 21, 1866) to Sir J. D. Hooker : " I sent to the nursery gar- 

 den, whence I bought the seed, and could only hear that it 

 was * the common blue Lupine,' the man saying * he was no 

 scholard, and did not know Latin, and that parties who 

 make experiments ought to find out the names.' " 



The book was published May 15th, 1862. Of its recep- 

 tion he writes to Mr. Murray, June 13th and 18th : 



" The Botanists praise my Orchid-book to the skies. 

 Some one sent me (perhaps you) the Parthenon, with a good 

 review. The Athenceum* treats me with very kind pity 

 and contempt ; but the reviewer knew nothing of his sub- 

 ject." 



" There is a superb, but I fear exaggerated, review in 

 the London Review. \ But I have not been a fool, as I 

 thought I was, to publish; for Asa Gray, about the most 

 competent judge in the world, thinks almost as highly of 

 the book as does the London Review. The Athenceum will 

 hinder the sale greatly." 



The Rev. M. J. Berkeley was the author of the notice in 

 the London Review, as my father learned from Sir J. D. 

 Hooker, who added, " I thought it very well done indeed. 

 I have read a good deal of the Orchid-book, and echo all he 

 says." 



To this my father replied (June 30th, 1862): 



" My dear* old friend, You speak of my warming the 

 cockles of your heart, but you will never know how often 

 you have warmed mine. It is not your approbation of my 

 scientific work (though I care for that more than for any 

 one's) : it is something deeper. To this day I remember 

 keenly a letter you wrote to me from Oxford, when I was at 

 the Water-cure, and how it cheered me when I w^as utterly 

 weary of life. Well, my Orchid-book is a success (but I do 

 not know whether it sells)." 



In another letter to the same friend, he wrote : 



" You have pleased me much by what you say in regard 



* May 24th, 1862 t June 14th, 1862. 



22 



