L 237 ] 



Scnccio IDuloari^* -' 



By R. H. Moore. 



Plates 26 and 27. 



OUR garden-weeds are common enough — so common, in fact, 

 that many are accustomed to pass them by, without giving a 

 thought to their wonderful structure, marvellous beauty, 

 and curious adaptation to surrounding circumstances. I suppose 

 it is quite orthodox and proper to despise the garden of the 

 sluggard, notwithstanding the untiring industry of Nature, which 

 clothes the uncultured soil with verdure. The original curse — 

 " Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee," has clung to the 

 earth throughout all ages. 



" Rank weeds, which every art and care defy. 

 Reign o'er the land, and rob the blighted rye ; 

 O'er the young shoot the charlock throws a shade. 

 And clasping tares cling round the sickly blade." 



In sheer retaliation man gazes on the weedy wastes with proud 

 contempt, or, v/ith more praiseworthy retaliation, arms himself 

 with spade and hoe to destroy these emblems of the fall. 



Surely, Nature cannot be blamed for her prolific harvests : far 

 better these than blank sterility, but we may blame a lazy 

 neighbour whose indolent habits render the curse a double one 

 to us, in causing our own gardens to bring forth a prolific crop of 

 thistles, from seeds blown from his. It may be mortifying enough 

 for us to be compelled to eat our bread in the sweat of our brow, 

 but when our toil is increased by a neighbour's own idleness, we 

 feel that we are the victims of an additional curse which ought 

 not to exist, and from which we certainly ought to be spared. 



* We deem it right to say that this paper was written for the Bath Micro- 

 scopical Society, and read before that society two years ago ; so that it is quite 

 independent of another on the same subject, entitled "A Bit of Groundsel," 

 by Rev. H. W. Lett, which appears on pages loi — 6 of the present volume. 

 Both papers mutually supplement one another, and show how two thoughtful 

 men, writing quite independently of each other, may find much that is new 

 and interesting in the most common subject. — [Ed.] 



