A GARDEN DIARY 179 



APRIL 26, 1900 



" I ^HE reddening of our sundew patch has 

 -- brought back to my mind various sundew 

 experiments, carried on long since, with all the 

 zeal of youth and enthusiasm. In this, as in 

 every other walk of biology, the investigators of 

 those days, amateur and scientist alike, followed 

 with docility in the wake of their master. Darwin 

 played the tune, and all the rest of us, great and 

 small, danced to his piping. 



To the best of my recollection my own investi- 

 gations were chiefly carried on standing stork 

 fashion upon a tussock, surrounded by an inky 

 opacity, which threatened to draw the investigator 

 downwards with a clutch, more tenacious and 

 formidable than that of any sundew. To the 

 faithful Irish botanist the poverty of the Flora 

 of Ireland as compared with that of Great Britain 

 has always been a serious humiliation. In this 

 respect these Droseraceae form an exception. 

 Of the few British species all, I think, are to 

 be found upon the bogs of the West of Ireland, 



