96 MEMOIR OF DR. EARVEY. 



my life, my heart went fully along with the beautiful prayers 

 for the sovereign. In general they are a mere form ; for you 

 cannot pray for an old man who has led, and, for all you know, 

 is leading a dissipated life, with the sincerity that you feel in 

 petitioning for so interesting a young creature as our present 

 sovereign ; so let us end with the hearty aspiration, " God save 

 the Queen." 



Treasury, October 2. 

 Alere Flammam ! 'tis a useful thing, and so Hooker 

 thinks, for he has just sent me two Nos. of his "Icones 

 Plantarum ;" at Tab. 118 of which I find the Harveya. Tis 

 a very lovely plant, with which I am highly pleased and 

 flattered. 'Tis apropos to give me a genus of Parasites, as I am 

 one of those weak characters that draw their pleasures from 

 others, and their support and sustenance too, seeing I quickly 

 pine, if I have not some one to torment. You will be glad to 

 hear that my slumbers are breaking. 



I am about preparing a small octavo book, called " Genera 

 of South African Plants." It contains descriptions of all Cape 

 Genera, in as simple language as possible, with remarks on 

 their habit, places of growth, and probable number of species, 

 &c, arranged after the natural method, but like Mackay's 

 " Flora," having a table of the Linnean prefixed, as well as a 

 brief introduction to botany explaining the more common 

 terms. This is intended to be sent to resident doctors, clergy- 

 men, &c, scattered about the country, to excite their idle minds 

 to send specimens into Cape Town, and to cultivate a taste for 

 botany generally in the colony. 



Oct. 8th. 'Tis blowing a south-easter, and has been so for the 

 last three days ; yet my study is so admirably situated that I 

 sit with the window wide open, and feel not any breeze or dust, 

 and hear scarcely more than the murmur of the wind in the 

 distant trees. How different at Mrs. Von's, with rattling 

 windows, eddies of dust, vile smells, and everything hateful. 

 Let me describe my study. It looks out on a garden just now 

 full of weeds. There is a trellis-work outside that obstructs the 

 strong sunlight, the shadow coming from vines which are in 

 summer luxuriance. At a little distance is a green railing, 

 my boundary, and through and above the bars at a considerable 



