94 MEMOIR OF DR. EAR VET. 



in the neighbourhood to which I am restricted. Still many a 

 little makes a rauckle, arid time may show. 



You will be glad to hear that I have purchased a house and 

 garden (the latter about an acre in extent) in the neighbourhood 

 of the town, close to Ludwigsburg, commanding a lovely pros- 

 pect of the bay and distant mountains, and altogether a little 

 spot to put a man in good humour with himself and all the 

 world beside. My terrace is shaded with vines and melia trees, 

 the latter just now budding, and in a month will be covered 

 with their graceful purple and sweet-scented flowers. The 

 garden of course contains few plants now, but twelve months 

 hence we shall have a different story to tell. You may then 

 pull my ears if it be not rich in all the Africandees within my 

 reach. "When I get settled I hope to have stories to tell of a 

 little fern and orchis house, for which there is a snug corner, 

 communicating with my bedroom, so that I can water my friends 

 when dressing in the morning. I wish I could show it to you. 

 You would, I am sure, admire the whole spot ; and as for the 

 distant view, 'tis rarely I have seen it equalled. I know not 

 Naples, but we have our intense blue bay, never void of 

 ships of all sizes and many shapes, with lesser craft flying 

 among them. We have a distant city at our feet, and the 

 mellowed sounds coming from it. Table Mountain at one side, 

 standing like a wall ; beyond it the various coloured plains 

 called "Flats" (alas the name !), and our horizon landward is 

 a range of high Alpine-looking mountains, of very beautiful and 

 bold shape, and just now tipped with snow. On the whole, 'tis 

 a scene to satisfy the eye, and by the constant changes of 

 shadow, to keep it unsatiated. I have been drying everything 

 I can pick up, the results for you one of these days ; but nay 

 bundles come far short of those of last year. Still I have 

 made acquaintance with many plants not in those bundles, 

 some of which will interest you. I think there were very few 

 Oxcdidem, for instance, but this year I have picked up a good 

 many. As I have now got a garden, I shall store up all 

 the oddities I meet with, to be occasionally despatched to 

 Loddiges'. 



I am much obliged for Dr. Fischer's kind message, and -shall 

 rejoice to receive the treasures of the Caspian and Kamtschatkan 

 seas, and to exchange for them the productions of the south. 



