194 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



had Loudon's "Encyclopaedia of Plants," which contained all 

 the British plants, and he would lend it to me, and I could 

 copy the characters of the British species. 



I therefore took it home to Bryn-coch, and for some 

 weeks spent all my leisure time in first examining it carefully, 

 finding that I could make out both the genus and the species 

 of many plants by the very condensed but clear descriptions, 

 and I therefore copied out the characters of every British 

 species there given. As Lindley's volume had rather broad 

 margins, I found room for all the orders which contained 

 only a moderate number of species, and copied the larger 

 orders on sheets of thin paper, which I interleaved at the 

 proper places. Having at length completed this work for 

 all the flowering plants and ferns, and also the genera of 

 mosses and the main divisions of the lichens and fungi, I 

 took back the volume of Loudon, and set to work with 

 increased ardour to make out all the species of plants I could 

 find. This was very interesting and quite a new experience 

 for me, and though in some cases I could not decide to which 

 of two or three species my plant belonged, yet a considerable 

 number could be determined without any doubt whatever. 



This also gave me a general interest in plants, and a 

 catalogue published by a great nurseryman in Bristol, which 

 David Rees got from the gardener, was eagerly read, 

 especially when I found it contained a number of tropical 

 orchids, of whose wonderful variety and beauty I had 

 obtained some idea from the woodcuts in Loudon's Encyclo- 

 paedia. The first epiphytal orchid I ever saw was at a flowershow 

 in Swansea, where Mr. J. Dillwyn Llewellyn exhibited a plant 

 of Epidendrum fragrans, one of the less attractive kinds, but 

 which yet caused in me a thrill of enjoyment which no other 

 plant in the show produced. My interest in this wonderful 

 order of plants was further enhanced by reading in the 

 Gardener's Chronicle an article by Dr. Lindley on one of the 

 London flower shows, where there was a good display of 

 orchids, in which, after enumerating a number of the species, 

 he added, "and Dendrobium Devonianunty too delicate and 

 beautiful for a flower of earth." This and other references to 



