THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 17 



CIS — Id lca\ c their regular tasks and wander over hill and 

 dale in >carch of [)lants when they were accompanied by some- 

 h<>d\- who Could talk about them. Indeed, 1 suspect that a 

 great part of the fishing and hunting that goes on in settled 

 communities is made the subtile excuse for getting away 

 again for a day among the plants. It is the custom of the 

 ordinarv man to suggest some ulterior motive for a return to 

 nature. ju>t as he borrows a child to take to the circus, or takes 

 the chiklren to the woods in spring. Deliberately to go 

 flower-gathering would seem to the average adult much too 

 sentimental to be countenanced. 



An interest in plants, moreover, is the compelling factor 

 in a nudlitude of diverse midertakings cpiite unbotanical in 

 character. No matter liow much the driver is interested in 

 the speed of his car he at least chooses the more fiowery and 

 tree-shaded highways wdien he drives for pleasure. And 

 those peripatetic gentlemen of the road whose sole artificial 

 method of transportation is an empty box-car — where do they 

 establish their camps? Always among sheltering trees if 

 there are any in the neighborhood ! The wanderlust that in- 

 spires such travellers is undoubtedly in part a response to the 

 changes of vegetation, for like the birds, they go south when 

 the leaves fall and are always rarest where plants are fewest. 

 There are no tramps in the desert ! 



Much of the charm of bird-study is really due to the 

 l)lants among which it is carried on. The bobolink's song 

 sounds less sweet if separated from the fiowery meadows over 

 which he hovers and sings, as many a man has discovered to 

 his sorrow after caging the bird. The whistle of the oriole 

 from the airy branches of an elm, the mew of the cat-bird in 

 the dewy alder thicket, the robin's song in the orchard, even 

 the caw of the crow among the pines, is more musical because 



