322 
NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
CHAP. 
for a time completely prostrated. The fact is, I 
have been too constant to botany ; several times in 
the course of my travels I might have taken to some 
occupation far more lucrative ; and I have met 
many men who, beginning without a cent, have 
made more money in two or three years than I in 
thirteen, and that without being exposed to thunder- 
storms and pelting rain, sitting in a canoe up to the 
knees in water, eating of bad and scanty food once 
a day, getting no sleep at night from the attacks of 
venomous insects, to say nothing of the certainty 
of having every now and then to look death in the 
face, as I have done. 
Excuse these personal details, which I have not 
entered into with any hope or desire of exciting sym- 
pathy, but simply to explain that, although still in the 
midst of objects interesting to the inquirer into the 
productions and processes of nature, I can pay little 
heed to them. 
[Spruce then describes how he tried to obtain 
specimens of the flowers, etc., of a particular balsam 
tree Mr. Hanbury was very anxious to obtain ; but 
after paying the owner of the forests ten dollars to 
send an Indian to fetch them, he received a mule-load 
of branches none of which possessed a single flower 
or fruit, to obtain which one or two more journeys 
would have to be made at different seasons. He 
then proceeds : — ] 
When I came out to the Amazon I resolved 
never to take a specimen of a gum or resin without 
gathering specimens of the tree producing it ; in 
which I did very wrong, for I thus lost the oppor- 
tunity of securing good specimens of many gums, 
etc., brought by the Indians to the towns for sale ; 
