276 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
reference must be made for an account of the many strange and 
interesting creatures which she brought round her at The Grove. 
-A large part of her garden was set apart for the growing on a 
large scale of stocks, sweet peas, lavender, roses, pinks, and other 
fragrant flowers; of these numerous bunches were sent up twice 
o some of the London hospitals, or given to the various 
-parties of poor folk from London missions who were invited down 
to spend a summer afternoon. On such occasions Mrs. Brightwen, 
-having attended to their creature comforts, would give a simple 
address on spiritual subjects; for an intense religious conviction 
was a potent factor in her life—never obtruded but always 
present. A member of the Evangelical party in the Church of 
England, she was entirely devoid of narrowness, and, as her 
diaries and her books show, had a keen sense of humour, in which 
religious folk are often somewhat deficient. This lent brightness 
to her conversation, which was always attractive, for she was a 
year—and of her baby donkey might have appeared in Wi 
Nature, published when she was sixty; and the “ stores of know- 
ledge’”’ which she describes herself as acquiring from the many 
; no 
vation, her power of description, are manifest throughout ; as is 
their cha 
} e referred to Mr. Gosse’s sympathetic and graphic 
ili ith Mrs. 
manded before the work was passed. More particularly do 
remember the work on pollination; the patience and care bestowed 
