xiii] GLAMORGANSHIRE: NEATH 195 



and descriptions of them gave them, in my mind, a weird and 

 mysterious charm, which was extended even to our native 

 species, and 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. 



But I soon found that by merely identifying the plants I 

 found in my walks I lost much time in gathering the same 

 species several times, and even then not being always quite 

 sure that I had found the same plant before. I therefore 

 began to form a herbarium, collecting good specimens and 

 drying them carefully between drying papers and a couple 

 of boards weighted with books or stones. My brother, 

 however, did not approve of my devotion to this study, 

 even though I had absolutely nothing else to do, nor did he 

 suggest any way in which I could employ my leisure more 

 profitably. He said very little to me on the subject beyond 

 a casual remark, but a letter from my mother showed me 

 that he thought I was wasting my time. Neither he nor I 

 could foresee that it would have any effect on my future life, 

 and I myself only looked upon it as an intensely interesting 

 occupation for time that would be otherwise wasted. Even 

 when we were busy I had Sundays perfectly free, and used 

 then to take long walks over the mountains with my collect- 

 ing box, which I brought home full of treasures. I first 

 named the species as nearly as I could do so, and then laid 

 them out to be pressed and dried. At such times I ex- 

 perienced the joy which every discovery of a new form of life 

 gives to the lover of nature, almost equal to those raptures 

 which I afterwards felt at every capture of new butterflies on 

 the Amazon, or at the constant stream of new species of birds, 

 beetles, and butterflies in Borneo, the Moluccas, and the Aru 

 Islands. 



It must be remembered that my ignorance of plants at 

 this time was extreme. I knew the wild rose, bramble, haw- 

 thorn, buttercup, poppy, daisy, and foxglove, and a very 

 few others equally common and popular, and this was all. 

 I knew nothing whatever as to genera and species, nor of the 

 large numbers of distinct forms related to each other and 



