72 THE SOUTH AND ITS SCIENTIFIC SCOPE 



collections should be mentioned in the public journals (like 

 McCormick's) should they even be worth it, which I doubt — 

 as all I care for is to please you. I grow every day more 

 selfish and totally indifferent to pubhc opinion ; I still 

 scorn the Eoyal Society's commission in botany, and if 

 I only hear that the present collection does not go to you, 

 my next first set shall be a different one, but you shall not 

 be the sujfferer. The Eoyal Society ordered me to send 

 them a first set, and when they have a right to order me, 

 I will ; as it is, I am so sure that this set is for you, that 

 I make it a tolerable one. Good as a set it may be ; but I 

 fear you will not think it so as a collection. 



Letters were very slow in reaching the exploring ship : 

 sometimes they pursued her vainly half over the globe : and 

 thus it was not till two and a half years later (November 25, 

 1842) that he could speak of being reassured as to his later 

 work. 



The dissatisfaction my first plants gave has weighed 

 on my mind until the receipt of your last letters, and all 

 along made me fear that I was physically incapacitated for 

 the high trust reposed in me, which the longer I remain in 

 the Expedition the more honourable do I feel it. My services 

 now are not those of a day, although but a few days have 

 been spent in collecting. 



Botany at sea meant for the most part collecting on lonely 

 islands and examining the collections afloat when weather 

 permitted. A significant note in a letter to Eobert Brown 

 (November 28, 1843) explains : 



In a few days we start again for the Ice, and as soon as 

 we reach smooth water and the pack, I shall begin finishing 

 my notes on the vegetation of the Falklands and Hermite 

 Island. 



Botany at sea also meant collecting floating seaweeds and 

 examining them and the animal Hfe upon them. 



Till within a few days [he writes from the Cape on March 

 17, 1840] no floating seaweeds have been seen, when they 

 suddenly appeared whilst cruising off St. Helen's Bay about 



