32 WILD FLOWERS OF 



king-cup in the yellow mead," to the distinguished 

 amateur, who fills his borders with incomparable 

 tulips, or his conservatories and green-houses with 

 choice exotics, we all admit the charm of flowers 

 upon the fancy ; but in sequestered scenes of nature's 

 own planting especially are they poetical and sug- 

 gestive. The pages of almost every traveller exhibits 

 some trait of this kind a spontaneous tribute of 

 floral admiration, though technical botany itself may 

 not be understood or appreciated. VAILLAISTT, the 

 French traveller, states that when wandering amidst 

 the majestic solitudes of Southern Africa, he felt his 

 heart exult within him at the sight of a magnificent 

 lily, " the sole queen of the desert," which, growing 

 on the brink of a river, filled the air around with a 

 delicious fragrance ; and, as he poetically observes, 

 " had been respected by all the animals of the district, 

 and seemed defended by its beauty." Pictures of 

 this kind, reminiscences of past communications with 

 nature, and vegetable contemplations, are always 

 soothing and delightful ; they charm at the time, and, 

 when care slumbers, the vision smiles again radiant in 

 the memory as an iris on a dark cloud. 



I once, in the course of my rambles, met with a 

 rustic, driving a cart, in a deep lane, in a secluded 

 part of the country, who had several not very common 

 wild flowers in his hand, which he seemed to regard 

 with interest. " What, my friend, are you a botanist ?" 

 I asked. " "Why," replied the man, " I do'nt know 

 the curious names you gentlemen give to these things, 

 but when I see them smiling under the hedges, they 

 seem to speak to me ; and when I have plucked them, 

 and look at them, they so sweeten my thoughts, that 



