1862.1 FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. 445 



Hooker, who added, " I thought it very well done indeed. I 

 have read a good deal of the Orchid-book, and echo all he 

 siys." 



To this my father replied (June 3oth, 1862) : 

 " MY DEAR OLD FRIEND, You speak of my warming the 

 cockles of your heart, but you will never know how often you 

 have warmed mine. It is not your approbation of my scien- 

 tific work (though I care for that more than for any one's) : it 

 is something deeper. To this day I remember keenly a letter 

 you wrote to me from Oxford, when I was at the Water-cure, 

 and how it cheered me when I was utterly weary of life. 

 Well, my Orchis-book is a success (but I do not know 

 whether it sells)." 



In another letter to the same friend, he wrote : 

 " You have pleased me much by what you say in regard to 

 Bentham and Oliver approving of my book ; for I had got a 

 sort of nervous-ness, and doubted whether I had not made an 

 egregious fool of myself, and concocted pleasant little stinging 

 remarks for reviews, such as 'Mr. Darwin's head seems to 

 have been turned by a certain degree of success, and he 

 thinks that the most trifling observations are worth publica- 

 tion.'" 



Mr. Bentham's approval was given in his Presidential 

 Address to the Linnean Society, May 24, 1862, and was all 

 the more valuable because it came from one who was by 

 no means supposed to be favourable to evolutionary doc- 

 trines.] 



C. Darwin to Asa Gray. 



Down, June 10 [1862]. 



MY DEAR GRAY, Your generous sympathy makes you 

 overestimate what you have read of my Orchid-book. But 

 your letter of May i8th and 26th has given me an almost 

 foolish amount of satisfaction. The subject interested me, i 

 knew, beyond its real value ; but I had lately got to think 

 that I had made myself a complete fool by publishing in a 

 semi-popular form. Now I shall confidently defy the world 



