270 



FERTILISATION 



[1862. 



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

 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 subject." 



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

 ' London Review.' f 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 scien- 

 tific 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 was utterly weary of life. 



a letter (July 21, 1866) to Sir J. D. 

 Hooker : "I sent to the nursery- 

 garden, 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.' " 



* May 24, 1862. 



f June 14, 1862. 



% Doubts on this point still, how- 

 ever, occurred to him about this 

 time. He wrote to Prof. Oliver 

 (June 8) : " I am glad that you have 

 read my Orchis-book and seem to 

 approve of it ; for I never published 

 anything which I so much doubted 

 whether it was worth publishing, 

 and indeed I still doubt. The sub- 

 ject interested me beyond what, I 

 suppose, it is worth." 



