The Scottish Naturalist. 59 



made in even the most limited district. Only seldom does one 

 see a herbarium that approaches what may be conceived as the 

 ideal type in completeness, and in the information that might be 

 gained from it ; and yet the preparation of such a collection 

 demands nothing beyond care and that power of observation that 

 is one of the most valuable results of a study of Botany. It is not 

 a source of expense to its maker, but far more may be learned 

 from it than from the most expensively got up of the heterogeneous 

 collections one sees at times. 



Much aid could be given in extending the boundaries of what 

 is known in all sciences of observation, even in the most limited 

 area for work, by careful and unwearied workers ; each confining 

 himself to one district, so as to be thoroughly familiar with the 

 fauna and flora, the geology, the meteorology, and the various- 

 other conditions of existence, apart and in their mutual relations, 

 and actions on one another. As Tennyson has well said : — 



" Flower in the crannied wall, 

 I pluck you out of the crannies : 

 Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 

 Little flower, but if I could understand 

 What you are, root and all, and all in all, 

 I should know what God and man is." 



To know that, may well be believed to be beyond human reason ; 

 but to know in part is within the reach of our powers ; nor is the 

 knowledge likely to be gained more fully than by the careful 

 observation of the varying conditions of existence in circumstances 

 where the mind is not liable to be distracted by too wide a range 

 of conditions. There are many that are in circumstances and that 

 have the ability to add largely to our present knowledge if once 

 they were to make a beginning. We have still among us those 

 that could worthily follow the example of Gilbert White of 

 Selborne ; and that by being the natural historians of a parish, or 

 even of a less area, might largely extend the confines of our know- 

 ledge. It might perhaps be of use to point out how much there 

 is to observe even under apparently the most unfavourable con- 

 ditions ; and a series of articles with this object would worthily 

 find a place in this Magazine, if from the pens of those able to 

 speak with personal experience. 



The value of a herbarium may be assumed to be admitted by 

 everyone — though some botanists seem to think it unworthy of the 

 trouble entailed in its formation, and trust to their recollection. 



