228 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



Being so near to our former house, I was able to bring all 

 our choicer plants to the new ground, and there was, fortu- 

 nately, a sale of the whole stock of a small nursery near Poole 

 in the winter, at which I bought about a thousand shrubs and 

 trees at very low prices, which enabled us at once to plant 

 some shrubberies and flower borders, and thus to secure 

 something like a well-stocked garden by the time we got 

 into the house. Since that time it has been an ever-increas- 

 ing pleasure, and I have been able to satisfy my craving for 

 enjoying new forms of plant-life every year, partly by raising 

 numbers of seeds of hardy and greenhouse plants, always 

 trying some of the latter in sheltered places out-of-doors, and 

 partly by exchanges or by gifts from friends, so that every 

 year I have the great pleasure of watching the opening of 

 some of nature's gems which were altogether new to me, or 

 of others which increase year by year in beauty. In one 

 end of my greenhouse I have a large warmed tank in which 

 I grow blue, pink, and yellow water-lilies, which flower the 

 greater part of the year, as well as a few other beautiful or 

 curious aquatic plants, while the back wall of the house is 

 covered with choice climbers. 



In this hasty sketch of my occupations and literary work 

 during the last nine years, I have purposely omitted the more 

 important portion of the latter, because the circumstances 

 that led me on to undertake three separate works, involving 

 a considerable amount of labour, were very curious, and to 

 me very suggestive, and I will now give a connected account 

 of them. 



When in 1896 I was invited by Dr. Lunn to give a lecture 

 to his friends at Davos, I firmly believed that my scientific 

 and literary work was concluded. I had been for some years 

 in weak health, and had no expectation of living much longer. 

 Shortly after returning from America I had another very 

 severe attack of asthma in 1890, and a year or two after it 

 recurred and became chronic, together with violent palpita- 

 tions on the least sudden exertion, and frequent colds almost 

 invariably followed by bronchitis. Any attempt at continuous 



