Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/128

 detecting the appearance or disappearance of local rarities, "escapes," and "undesirable aliens." Owing to its almost insular position, with its mild and moist climate, Cornwall offers peculiar features of interest to the botanist, and the flotsam and jetsam of the numberless vessels coming up the Channel from distant lands, constantly bring strange seeds to germinate in the creeks and harbours of the rocky coast. To stroll in converse with him over cliff and moor was in itself a liberal education. Also at his home I was sometimes privileged to see him at work, in his "peaceful hermitage"; to watch his beautiful manipulation of the dried specimens ; and to note the zeal he inspired in his co-workers. Mr. Griffin writes as follows regarding the Botanic Institute :

"I have thought it well in the first place to state the circumstances under which Mr. Hume first engaged me as his botanical assistant, because an illustration of the benevolence of his character is thus afforded.

"In and previously to the year 1900 I had contributed to a Kentish newspaper a weekly article on natural history subjects, many of which were descriptive of the flora of West Kent and East Surrey. Early in 1900 I received, through the editor of the paper, a letter from Mr. Hume, to whom I was then unknown, stating that he desired to add to his herbarium specimens of the orchideous and other plants mentioned in my articles, and requesting me to name a time and place where he could see me. This resulted in Mr. Hume calling upon me at my residence in a south-east London suburb, and an arrangement was made that I should collect and press for Mr. Hume specimens of all the more valuable species I could find, and from time to time send to him in Cornwall, where he was proposing to spend the season collecting plants, lists of what I might collect, he engaging to defray my travelling and other incidental expenses