Our own weeds and wayside flowers are
far prettier and more varied than those of the tropics. It is only the
great leaves and the curious-looking plants, and the deep gloom of the
forests and the mass of tangled vegetation that astonish and delight
Europeans, and it is certainly grand and interesting and in a certain
sense beautiful, but not the calm, sweet, warm beauty of our own fields,
and there is none of the brightness of our own flowers; a field of
buttercups, a hill of gorse or of heather, a bank of foxgloves and a
hedge of wild roses and purple vetches surpass in _beauty_ anything I
have ever seen in the tropics. This is a favourite subject with me, but
I cannot go into it now.
Send the accompanying note to Mr. Stevens immediately. You will see what
I say to him about my collections here. Java is the richest of all the
islands in birds, but they are as well known as those of Europe, and it
is almost impossible to get a new one. However, I am adding fine
specimens to my collection, which will be altogether the finest known of
the birds of the Archipelago, except perhaps that of the Leyden Museum,
who have had naturalists collecting for them in all the chief islands
for many years with unlimited means.
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