The Scottish Naturalist. 29 



current in many places. One cannot look at the rare and 

 beautiful fairy rings without half believing the superstition that 

 soon they will be filled with merry groups of the " good folks " 

 in green, dancing under the harvest moon. Fern seed is one 

 of the substances which universally enters into folk lore, and is 

 supposed to be of great power. The common belief is that it 

 renders one invisible. It ought to be gathered on the night of 

 22nd June, in a wood, a plate or white piece of paper being 

 put below the fern, and the fern seed, which drops while the 

 would-be-invisible repeats an incantation three times with his 

 back to the fern, is said to have peculiar power. One of the 

 prettiest of these fables is that attaching to the pellucid St. 

 John's Wort. This plant, called in Germany the "plant of 

 power," is very delicate and readily fades. Its power culminates 

 on the night of St. John, and at midnight the German girls are 

 wont to go out to gather it. If it f keeps fresh till morning they 

 believe they will be married before twelve months are over. 



There are many theories in connection with the study ot 

 Botany, as to which the student must form an opinion for him- 

 self, and take one side or other. One cannot go far into the 

 study of botany without having to face somehow the question 

 of the origin of species, so long debated and so well stated by 

 Mr. Darwin. This question is more troublesome in botany 

 than anywhere else, and from botany will yet come, [ think, 

 the answer to the question, "What are the conditions of a 

 species ?" 



The geographical distribution of plants is perhaps the most 

 interesting part of the study, and opens to us some curious re- 

 lations between far distant countries. 



Botany is a science closely related to many others. We are 

 brought in contact with chemistry, medicine, geology, geography, 

 and mechanics. Perhaps the young student may find the me- 

 chanical part the most interesting, when he observes the number 

 of elastic lids, springs, boxes, syphons, and tubes, which go to 

 make up the most insignificant flower. The spores of the 

 fern are the most curious mechanical contrivances in the vece- 

 table world. As a study of the beautiful, this science has a 

 most beneficial effect in correcting and improving our taste, or 

 sense of the beautiful. Ladies will dress more in accordance 

 with the laws of beauty when they get acquainted with them. 



