2 HISTOllY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 



might be said to live, thej were not sentient beings, — tliey 

 did not feel. A true lover of nature, however, treats them 

 with kindliness, as if they enjoyed life. We have known 

 amiable enthusiasts, who, without holding it as a fixed prin- 

 ciple, acted as if the plants they admired and loved really 

 had sentient life. The late Mr. James Smith, of Monk- 

 woodgrove in Ayrshire, was a person of this description. 

 They tell that when he was constrained to cut down a tree 

 that was overshadowing other plants in his garden, he blind- 

 folded himself that he might not see the wounds which the 

 axe inflicted. When he was showing the beauties of his 

 greenhouse one day to two ladies, friends of mine, one of 

 them said to him, " Mr. Smith, what is that in the flower- 

 pot ? it is very like a nettle/' His answer was, " Indeed, 

 ma'am, it is just a nettle, but it grew up sae bonnily, puir 

 thing, that I could not think to pn' it.'' Though we may 

 not go the length of sparing the nettle in our mercy, who 

 would wantonly injure a flower ? AYere we to see a young 

 lady tearing the petals of a lovely rose, she would immeth- 

 ately appear less loveable in our eyes, for it would prove that 

 she was dead to the charms of one of the most beautiful 

 works of God. She has torn and cast to the ground what 

 the fairest fingers and the greatest human skill could never 



