" Orbe, Canton de Berne, en Suisse. 



" I never yet remained so long without writing to 

 you, my dearest and best friend : you will not be 

 surprised at this, when I shall have explained the 

 cause of my silence. My health has been very 

 unsettled, as it too generally is. — You know how 

 ardent is my love of plants. Among the various 

 contrarieties I have been obliged to bear, the want 

 of sufficient room for my books and herbarium, &c. 

 drove me from a very small study which I formerly 

 occupied, and to which I was confined, because a 

 contiguous room, which would have suited me, was 

 appropriated to a much more important use, — the 

 admittance of some card parties, when another room 

 more usually frequented could not suffice. I was 

 therefore obliged, during the latter part of the reign 

 of these accursed cards, to take refuge in a less 

 limited room on the ground-floor. — Not to be too 

 prolix, and to come to the point, I discovered last 

 summer, that in this position, from a certain degree 

 of damp, though not very great, my herbarium has 

 been in a great measure spoilt ; a great number of 

 specimens are become mouldy, and among these 

 some of the most precious. 



" You will pardon me, surely, if I unload in some 

 degree my heart, by opening myself somewhat 

 further to you, who give me such kind proofs of 

 your friendship. 



"It was just at the epoch of the death of my father 

 that I began to have some vague notion of botany; 

 that I perceived it was possible to acquire some 

 knowledge of that enchanting study, by means of 



b 2 



