478 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



pleasure of observing the strange truths which they unfold, the beauti- 

 ful laws which they reveal, and the resemblances and relations which 

 they display. The false romanticism of vulgar fancy requires some- 

 thing pretentious and unnatural to gratify its taste ; but, to the true 

 poetical mind, the humblest moss on the wall, or the green slime that 

 creams on the wayside pool, will suggest trains of pleasing and profit- 

 able reflection. He who has an observing eye and an appreciating 

 mind for these minute wonders of Nature, need never be alone. Every 

 nook and corner of the earth, however barren and dreary to superficial 

 minds, has companions for him ; and on every path he will find what 

 the Indians call a rustatcallah, a delightful road-fellow. 



To the cryptogamic botanist Nature reveals herself in her wildest, 

 and also in her fairest aspects. He enters into her guarded retreats 

 retiring spots of luxuriant, refreshing, and enticing beauty, that are 

 hidden from every other eye ; where the great world of strife and toil 

 speaks not, and its cares and sorrows are forgotten, and Nature wakes 

 up the dead divinity within, and rouses the soul to purer and nobler 

 purposes. The peculiar haunts of the objects of his search are found 

 on the sides and summits of lofty mountains, amid the dark, lonely 

 recesses of forests ; in the bright bosom of rivers, and lakes, and 

 water-falls ; on far-off, unvisited moors, where heaven's serene and pas- 

 sionless blue is the only thing of beauty ; and in the mossy retreats 

 of dell and dingle, where Titania and her fays might sport away the 

 dreamy noontide hours. There he finds the pictures which the soul 

 treasures most lovingly ; and in these by-ways does he gain the truest 

 insight into the mysteries of life. In thus penetrating into the very 

 heart of Nature, with much toil and exertion it may be, he seems to 

 win her confidence, and to earn the right to look into her arcana. By 

 minute contact and continued commune with her alone in the wilder- 

 ness, he feels in all its fulness and depth the beautiful relationship that 

 exists between the outer and the inner life of creation. To others the 

 landscape may be the mere background of a picture, in the foreground 

 of which human figures are acting ; to him its charms are agencies and 

 influences acting on his heart and mingling with his life. The sports- 

 man in search of game frequently wanders into regions that seem 

 primeval in their solitude, and where " human foot had ne'er or rarely 

 been ; " but so absorbing is the pursuit in which he is engaged, that 

 he seldom pauses to watch the features of the surrounding scenery, or 

 to notice combinations of objects and effects of light and shade which 

 Nature never displays, except in such unfrequented spots. But to the 

 cryptogamist, on the other hand, these very scenes of Nature lend a 

 nameless charm and interest to the lowly plants he gathers, and are 

 ever after indelibly associated with them in his memory, and are re- 

 newed every time he witnesses their faded remains. Hardly a mo- 

 ment passes over the solitary collector amid such secluded scenes, 

 without some grand effect being produced in the surrounding land- 



