NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



to day, to be an instrument in his hands 

 for the furtherance of a great work. 



But to come back to the breakfast which 

 must be eaten some time, whether before, 

 or after, or during the hours of early superin- 

 tendence. It consists of simple food, a trifle 

 old-fashioned as regards fads, but ample and 

 wholesome and balanced. If for the moment 

 there is nothing particularly pressing in the 

 experimental plots, he gives an hour or two 

 after breakfast to his more important cor- 

 respondence. Time was when he attended in 

 person to every letter that came, so absolutely 

 conscientious was he toward this as toward 

 every other demand of his lifework, but the 

 day came when to do this and have any time 

 for the thousands of other more imperative 

 demands upon him was out of the question. 

 So he shifts the main responsibility of cor- 

 respondence upon other shoulders. And yet 

 there still remain many letters, in the very 

 nature of the work itself, answering of which 

 he may not easily delegate, — letters from men 

 of prominence in the scientific world, letters 

 from devoted friends, communications relative 

 to important steps in this or that creation 



294 



