The Scottish Naturalist. 197 



far more than their predecessors did, that the wisdom from above 

 includes in addition to the things primarily necessary to salvation, 

 all in the natural as well as all in the mental and spiritual worlds 

 that can furnish the understanding and fill the soul with food 

 convenient for its high capacities and boundless appetites. 

 Balaam is strikingly said to be " the man whose eyes are open." 

 The open eye to see clearly and appreciate truly the common 

 things that God has placed around us in our daily path is a gift 

 much rarer than it ought to be. Most people go through the 

 world with their eyes half shut or wholly blinded, and so not 

 only deprive themselves of endless sources of enjoyment and 

 instruction, but remain culpably ignorant of much that would 

 enlarge and elevate their ideas of God, and make their religion 

 a grander and brighter experience. 



There is fortunately no necessity now to apologise for the study 

 of Botany ; and no department of it has received such an impetus 

 during the last twenty years as that which falls within the scope 

 of this society. For a long time Cryptogamic plants were system- 

 atically neglected. When I began to study them thirty years ago, 

 I found very few indeed to sympathise with me in my peculiar 

 taste. In all Scotland there were not a dozen persons who knew 

 anything about lichens my special favourites. My friends, Dr. 

 Greville and Dr. Lauder Lindsay, were the only names known in 

 connection with the general subject. By professors of Botany, 

 Cryptogamic plants were ignored in their lectures ; and botanical 

 books seldom condescended to notice them. Explorers in foreign 

 lands gave an account sometimes of the new ferns and, perhaps, 

 the mosses which they had discovered ; but they hardly ever 

 brought home a collection of lichens and fungi, or gave any idea 

 of the lichen-flora or the mycology of the countries which they 

 investigated. Here and there some lonely student pursued his 

 researches among these plants unheeded. Flowers and ferns 

 were to a certain extent popular, but not one in a thousand cared 

 to descend lower into the arcana of the vegetable kingdom. What 

 a remarkable revolution has now been effected ! There are 

 hundreds of students of Cryptogamic plants scattered over Scot- 

 land. We can muster among them a force sufficient to form a" 

 large and nourishing Cryptogamic Society which is now in its- 

 thirteenth session which includes among its members many of 

 the most prominent scientific names in Scotland, and which by its 



