72 THE SOUTH AND ITS SCIENTIFIC SCOPE 
collections should be mentioned in the pubhc journals (like 
McCorniick's) should they even be worth it, which I doubt- 
as all I care for is to please you. I grow every day more 
selfish and totally indifferent to pubhc opinion ; I still 
scorn the Koyal Society's commission in botany, and if 
I only hear that the present collection does not go to you, 
my next pst set shall be a different one, but you shall not 
be the sufferer. The Eoyal Society ordered me to send 
them a first set, and when they have a right to order me, 
I will ; as it is, I am so sure that this set is for you, that 
I make it a tolerable one. Good as a set it may be ; but I 
fear you will not think it so as a collection. 
Letters were very slow in reaching the exploring ship : 
sometimes they pursued her vainly half over the globe : and 
thus it was not till two and a half years later (November 25, 
1842) that he could speak of being reassured as to his later 
work. 
The dissatisfaction my first plants gave has weighed 
on my mind until the receipt of your last letters, and all 
along made me fear that I was physically incapacitated for 
the high trust reposed in me, which the longer I remain in 
the Expedition the more honourable do I feel it. My services 
now are not those of a day, although but a few days have 
been spent in collecting. 
Botany at sea meant for the most part collecting on lonely 
islands and examining the collections afloat when weather 
permitted. A significant note in a letter to Eobert Brown 
(November 28, 1843) explains : 
In a few days we start again for the Ice, and as soon as 
we reach smooth water and the pack, I shall begin finishing 
my notes on the vegetation of the Falklands and Hermite 
Island. 
Botany at sea also meant collecting floating seaweeds and 
examining them and the animal life upon them. 
Till within a few days [he writes from the Cape on March 
17, 1840] no floating seaweeds have been seen, when they 
suddenly appeared whilst cruising off St. Helen's Bay about 
