Our plants had now increased to 252: as they were all kept on shore at the tent I augmented the guard there, though from the general conduct of the natives there did not appear the least occasion for so much caution.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I could only speak in the smallest, most intimate circles about the real reasons which made me undertake the changeover of the plants for certain lines of production for I had to expect that many people would not understand me.
If we had paid no more attention to our plants than we have to our children, we would now be living in a jungle of weed.
How many thorns of human nature are bristling conceits, buds of promise grown sharp for want of congenial climate.
We had not seen any natives for many days, but a few passed the camp on the opposite side of the river on the evening of the 25th. They would not, however, come to us; but fled into the interior in great apparent alarm.
This was the first day of our beginning to take up plants: we had much pleasure in collecting them for the natives offered their assistance and perfectly understood the method of taking them up and pruning them.
In the last camp they all ate grass, until the authorities forbade them to pull it up. They were accustomed to having the fruits of their little communal gardens stolen by the guards, after they had done all the work; but at the last camp everything was stolen.
We learn from our gardens to deal with the most urgent question of the time: How much is enough?
When I arrived on the planet, there were only two billion. Wildlife was more abundant, we were less so; now the situation is reversed.
I often visited a particular plant four or five miles distant, half a dozen times within a fortnight, that I might know exactly when it opened.
It seems very safe to me to be surrounded by green growing things and water.