232 VIRGINIA 



One compensation there was for the orni- 

 thological barrenness of these first few days : 

 I had the more leisure for botany. And 

 the hours were not thrown away, although 

 at the time I was almost ready to think they 

 were, with so many of them devoted to ran- 

 sacking the Manual ; for a man who does 

 not collect specimens to carry home with 

 him must, as it were, drive his field work 

 and his closet work abreast ; he must study 

 out his findings as he goes along. On the 

 evening of the second day, for example, I 

 wrote in my journal thus, the final entry 

 under that date, as the reader may guess : 

 " In bed. Strange how we flatter ourselves 

 with a knowledge of names. I have spent 

 much time to-day looking up the names of 

 flowers and ferns, and somehow feel as if I 

 had learned something in so doing. Really, 

 however, I have learned only that some one 

 else has seen the things before me, and 

 called them so and so. At best that is 

 nearly all I have learned." But after set- 

 ting down the results of my investigations, 

 especially of those having to do with the 

 pretty draba and the bulbiferous fern, I 

 concluded in a less positive strain : " Well, 



