154 NATURE AND WOODCRAFT. 



received but scant justice. They were illustra- 

 tive of types of mental weakness out of which 

 no good thing could be expected to come. To 

 show the difficulties with which they had to con- 

 tend, we will take the case of a characteristic 

 individual who eventually surmounted every 

 obstacle. Not only were his pet projects mer- 

 cilessly reviewed and summarily condemned 

 because he was " mentally weak," but he sinned 

 in a far worse way. He was a baker ; and, 

 after burning the loaves and then underdoing 

 them, he threw up dough in disgust. It was 

 evident that baking and botany could not go 

 hand in hand. This period of his life was the 

 darkest of all. He was often frustrated and 

 always condemned. 



Our botanist was born in 1702, in one of the 

 most primitive dales in the country, and which 

 must have proved a very paradise. Even now 

 it is one of the most secluded spots in the North. 

 Two subsequent scientists of renown knew of 

 its naturalistic treasures, and frequently visited 

 it. But there was something in the isolation 

 of this remote vale that told severely against 

 the earlier studies of the author of the first 

 great work on English botany. In the fulness 



