XXXIII] LITERARY WORK, ETC, 1 887-1905 207 



Fawcett, among which was the handsome Brotightonia san- 

 gtiinea, which flowered for several years. I also received a 

 large case of fine Indian orchids from the Botanic Gardens 

 at Calcutta. At last I got together more than a hundred 

 species, most of which I had the pleasure of seeing flower 

 once, though many refused to do so a second time. 



Owing to the entrance to the orchid house being on a 

 different floor from my study, the constant attention orchids 

 require in shading, ventilating, and keeping up a moist 

 atmosphere, involved such an amount of running up and 

 down stairs, or up and down steps or slopes in the garden, 

 that I found it seriously affected my health, as I was at that 

 time subject to palpitations and to attacks of asthma, which 

 were brought on by any sudden exertion. I was therefore 

 obliged to give up growing them, as I found it impossible to 

 keep them in a satisfactory condition. This was partly owing 

 to the position of my houses, which were exposed to an 

 almost constant wind or draught of air, which rendered it 

 quite impossible to keep up the continuously moist atmosphere 

 and uniform temperature which are essential conditions for 

 successful orchid-growing. One of my friends who began 

 growing orchids soon after I did, having a well-sheltered 

 position and better aspect, succeeded far better, although 

 he was able to give them much less attention and often did 

 not enter the house for days together, having a boy to 

 keep up the fire, shade from the sun, and moisten the floors 

 twice a day. It is a well-known fact that, even under the 

 same gardener, orchids will grow well in one house, while in 

 another, perhaps only twenty yards distant, it is almost 

 impossible to keep them in health. 



It was in the early part of my residence at Parkstone that 

 I received a visit from the great French Geographer, Elisee 

 Reclus, who had, I think, come to England to receive the 

 gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. He was a 

 rather small and very delicate-looking man, highly intellectual, 

 but very quiet in speech and manner. I really did not know 

 that it was //^^ with whose name I had been familiar for twenty 



