ONCOCYCLUS IRISES 21 



Isaac Newton, put back the advance of astronomical 

 science in one direction for a hundred years. He was 

 wrong in this one particular, but so convincing was his 

 opinion and name, that nobody thought of questioning 

 anything that fell from him, whatever it might be and 

 for once in a way he erred. It was exactly so in this 

 matter I am considering, though it has only the weight 

 of a feather in the scale. The one mistake had to do 

 with infinities, the other with the most utter triviality 

 by their side ; but in both the misapprehension of a 

 master, who was looked upon as an infallible authority, 

 led others astray. I heard it said about the cultivation 

 of Oncocyclus Irises, in the early days of attention being 

 paid to them : " I do not think the question of soil has 

 much to do with the matter ; success depends on other 

 considerations" and as anything which Herr Max 

 Leichtlin says about questions of horticulture is received 

 as final by me at once, I put this safely by in the recesses 

 of my brain, and I have treated it as an axiomatic 

 principle from that time to this. I am not the only 

 person who came to exactly the same conclusion about 

 exactly the same thing in the selfsame way but it was 

 in some measure our own fault. I have said that the 

 speech I have referred to was made a very long time 

 ago, and it may have been modified or altered between 

 this and then ; at any rate, I do not suppose it was in- 

 tended to bar all investigation on one point, as has been 

 the case. I blame myself for not wondering a long time 

 ago if first principles were quite so sure as I had sup- 

 posed them to be. It was the excessive veneration 

 which I feel for anything that comes from the 

 Magician of Baden Baden which stopped me at this 

 point, and I again repeat that what I refer to was said 

 a very long time ago. If I had seen him lately, so as to 

 speak to him about this matter, it might have been very 

 different. I dare say he has long since found out what 



