CHAPTER XL 



GENEALOGY, 



1. RETURNING, after more than a year's sorrowful in- 

 terval, to my Sicilian fields, not incognisant, now, of 

 some of the darker realms of Proserpina ; and with 

 feebler heart, and, it may be, feebler wits, for wandering 

 in her brighter ones, I find what I had written by way 

 of sequel to the last chapter, somewhat difficult, and ex- 

 tremely tiresome. iNot the less, after giving fair notice 

 of the difficulty, and asking due pardon for the tiresome- 

 ness, I am minded to let it stand ; trusting to end, with 

 it, once for all, investigations of the kind. But in finish- 

 ing this first volume of my School Botany, I must try to 

 give the reader some notion of the plan of the book, as 

 it now, during the time for thinking over it which illness 

 left me, has got itself arranged in my mind, within limits 

 of possible execution. And this the rather, because I 

 wish also to state, somewhat more gravely than I have 

 yet done, the grounds on which I venture here to reject 

 many of the received names of plants ; and to substitute 

 others for them, relating to entirely different attributes 



