GLAMORGANSHIRE: NEATH 195 



natural orders. My delight, therefore, was great when I was 

 now able to identify the charming little eyebright, the strange- 

 looking cow-wheat and louse-wort, the handsome mullein and 

 the pretty creeping toad-flax, and to find that all of them, as 

 well as the lordly foxglove, formed parts of one great natural 

 order, and that under all their superficial diversity of form 

 there was a similarity of structure which, when once clearly 

 understood, enabled me to locate each fresh species with 

 greater ease. The Crucifers, the Pea tribe, the Umbelliferse, 

 the Composite, and the Labiates offered great difficulties, 

 and it was only after repeated efforts that I was able to name 

 with certainty a few of the species, after which each addi- 

 tional discovery became a little less difficult, though the time 

 I gave to the study before I left England was not sufficient 

 for me to acquaint myself with more than a moderate pro- 

 portion of the names of the species I collected. 



Now, I have some reason to believe that this was the turn- 

 ing-point of my life, the tide that carried me on, not to for- 

 tune, but to whatever reputation I have acquired, and which 

 has certainly been to me a never-failing source of much 

 health of body and supreme mental enjoyment. If my 

 brother had had constant work for me so that I never had an 

 idle day, and if I had continued to be similarly employed 

 after I became of age, I should most probably have become 

 entirely absorbed in my profession, which, in its various de- 

 partments, I always found extremely interesting, and should 

 therefore not have felt the need of any other occupation or 

 study. 



I know now, though I was ignorant of it at the time, that 

 my brother's life was a very anxious one, that the difficulty 

 of finding remunerative work was very great, and that he 

 was often hard pressed to earn enough to keep us both in the 

 very humble way in which we lived. He never alluded to 

 this that I can remember, nor did I ever hear how much our 

 board and lodging cost him, nor ever saw him make the 

 weekly or monthly payments. During the seven years I was 

 with him I hardly ever had more than a few shillings for 



