195 



CHAPTER XI. 



GENEALOGY. 



I. "T) ETURNING, after more than a year's 

 J-^- sorrowful interval, 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 extremely 

 tiresome. Not the less, after giving fair notice of 

 the difficulty, and asking due pardon for the tire- 

 someness, I am minded to let it stand ; trusting 

 to end, with it, once for all, investigations of the 

 kind. But in finishing 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, some- 

 what more gravely than I have yet done, the 



