CHAPTER XXXVII. 



PUBLIC APPEAL MADE ON HIS BEHALF, AND ITS 

 GENEROUS RESULTS. 



THIS presentation of the herbarium and the subsequent 

 accounts of the man revealed the painful fact of his being 

 a pauper. It was only then that I became positively 

 assured of his depressing financial condition. At once, I 

 prepared an appeal in his favour, which appeared on the 

 5th of January in the chief newspapers in Britain, and 

 which was speedily transferred to others in all parts. In 

 this appeal, notice was directed to the man as " one of 

 those silent enthusiasts that are an honour to our country, 

 earning daily bread by incessant toil, but filled with a 

 pure love of nature and science, the joy of which had 

 been its own reward ; for, unlike many enthusiasts, he 

 never let the flowers still the music of his shuttle." It 

 was pointed out that he had pursued the study of science 

 " amidst difficulties, discouragements, and trials more than 

 common, with a beautiful devotion that had been as 

 honourable as it was pure, telling the world nothing of 

 his labours, and utterly unknown till dragged into notice 

 in 1878." I also gave some particulars of his life and 

 studies, and spoke of his accepting pauperism rather than 

 the pain of making money by the sale of his beloved 



