Early Years 



and butterflies in Borneo, the Moluccas, and the Aru 

 Islands."' 



Anything in the shape of gardening papers and catalogues 

 which came in his way was eagerly read, and to this source 

 he owed his first interest in the fascinating orchid. 



*' A catalogue published by a great nurseryman in Bristol 

 . . . contained a number of tropical orchids, of whose won- 

 derful variety and beauty I had obtained some idea from the 

 woodcuts in Loudon's ' Encyclopedia.' The first epiphytal 

 orchid I ever saw was at a flower show in Swansea . . . 

 which caused in me a thrill of enjoyment which no other 

 plant in the show produced. My interest in this wonder- 

 ful order of plants was further enhanced by reading in 

 the Gardener's Chronicle an article by Dr. Lindley on one 

 of the London flower shows, w^here there was a good display 

 of orchids, in which ... he added, ' and Dendrohium Devon- 

 ianuniy too delicate and beautiful for a flower of earth.' This 

 and other references . . . gave them, in my mind, a weird 

 and mysterious charm . . . which, I believe, had its share 

 in producing that longing for the tropics which a few years 

 later was satisfied in the equatorial forests of the Amazon."^ 



For a brief period, when there was a lull in the sur- 

 veying business and his prospects of continuing in this 

 profession looked uncertain, he tried watchmaking, and 

 would probably — though not by choice — have been appren- 

 ticed to it but for an unexpected circumstance which caused 

 his master to give up his business. Alfred gladly, when the 

 occasion offered, returned to his outdoor life, which had 



^ Darwin makes a similar comment : " I was very successful in collecting, 

 and invented two new methods . . . and thus I got some very rare species. 

 No poet ever felt more delighted at seeing his first poem published than I did 

 at seeing, in Stephens' * Illustrations of British Insects, ' the magic words, 

 * captured by C. Darwin, Esq.' " — Darwin's Autobiography, in the one-volume 

 " Life," p. 20. 



« " My Life," i. 194-5. 



23 



