MANUAL WOKK : HOTHOUSE PESTS 429 



I read the history of the unctuous meeting of Philos. 

 at Aberdeen and have read the severe remarks of barbarians 

 on the toadying and tuft-hunting and buttering. Judging 

 from titles of papers only, I should say there was never 

 so much good matter in science brought to a head at once. 

 Whilst you were sporting your science I was for 6 hours 

 a day engaged in the philosophical pursuit of distributing 

 86,000 duplicate named Indian plants. I liked it passably 

 well ! I could think all the time and to some supposed 

 purpose too. A good daily allowance of purely (or almost 

 purely) manual work upon scientific materials is a most 

 wholesome thing. I have thought my best thoughts when 

 collecting and arranging, and now that I do not intend to 

 collect or arrange any more, I find myself a fool for having 

 snubbed these mechanical exercises that have secured the 

 opportunities of opening up so many trains of ideas, that 

 would otherwise never have* fructified. , , , 



Huxley had asked for specimens of some insect pests from 

 the hot-houses of Kew. 



I send a brood or two of common mealbug, a piece of 

 old cactus with Cochineal Cocci, and a few leaflets of a fern 

 with .' Scale insect ' on it. 



Fortunately we cannot supply you abundantly by this 

 post, as my Father and I have had such rows with the 

 foreman and gardeners about the prevalence of these beasts, 

 that they are nowhere very abundant in our houses just 

 at present. Asking us for Cocci is like asking a decent 

 Boarding School Lady for a few crabs and other Pediculi 

 from her pupils ! However for Science's sake we will for- 

 give you. 



Unnecessary questions are a trial. He writes to Professor 

 Henslow : 



January 20, 1855. 



Many thanks for your letter ; I have been bothered 

 out of my life with enquiries about Gynerium argenteum, 

 and of all the vvs she is the most troublesome. If 



altogether dizzy with his own and his neighbours' affairs, there was a grain of 

 comfort : ' I have but one grim abiding source of satisfaction I don't lecture 

 and I never will.' 



