32 MEMOIR OF DR. EARVET. 



CHAPTER II. 



CONTINUATION OF HOME LIFE. 



Mr. J. M. Harvey found the occupation of so large a house as 

 Summerville too great a charge for his declining years and 

 failing health, and too lonely when his family became so 

 diminished. He therefore let it, after a residence of more than 

 forty years, and removed to join for a short time the establish- 

 ment of his eldest son, who lived at Plassey, in the beautiful 

 neighbourhood of Castleconnel, which proved a congenial home 

 to the devoted young botanist. 



The banks of the Shannon presented a richly luxuriant and 

 diversified vegetation. In one direction lay a broad tract of 

 peat bog, where many rare plants were mingled with the heath 

 and other common clothing of its moist surface. The Drosera or 

 sundew glistened among tufts of white moss and reindeer lichen, 

 and the delicate pink Andromeda recalled to fancy the story of 

 its fabled name, while the spiked flowers of Utricularia adorned 

 the pools. At some distance on the opposite side of the river a 

 ruin crowned a hill, which bore the name of New Castle, by a 

 not uncommon reversion. Here were rocky hillocks bright 

 with stonecrop and rock-pansy, while below these a marshy 

 district afforded most of the common sedges, besides the 

 graceful Carex pseudo-cyperus. 



After the office duties of the day were over, it was a delightful 

 refreshment to William to visit these habitats, even without the 

 attractive hope of making new discoveries. His walk from 

 town lay by the river side ; and he seldom or never trod the way 

 without gathering some flower for examination with his pocket 



