XXXIV PROCEEDINGS OE THE 



vide the labourer with the meaus of improving his condition, and 

 secure to him as an irrefragabl-e right, what alone offered a pro- 

 spect of keeping him from the workhouse when unemployed by the 

 farmer, and from the beershop when disposed to be idle, was an 

 object worth every effort on the part of the rector ; and in 18-19, 

 by dint of his indomitable moral courage and determination, he 

 succeededin establishing nofewer than fifty quarter-acre allotments 

 in the parish. Eor several years the battle raged, but with tlie 

 aid of one or two staunch supporters — honourable exceptions to 

 the mass — he overcame all difficulties, and finally almost tripled the 

 number of allotments. Throughout the whole of this agitating 

 period Professor Henslow preserved not only a calm, but a con- 

 ciliatory bearing : he announced himself from the first as a cham- 

 pion of the rights of the poor, sought no quarter himself, but 

 gave it liberally to all the vanquished ; he printed and circulated 



was contained in a separate pliial of water, and two or three hundred or more, 

 all fully labelled, were ai-rangcd along the wall in wooden shelves ch-illed for their 

 reception. The prizes awarded to the most successful field botanists were now 

 brought out for distribution. They were of three classes— botanical boxes, 

 pocket lenses, and cases of forceps. The little villagers received their philoso- 

 phical instruments with a slu-ewd appreciation of the use of them, and brought 

 them to bear on a dissection of the products of the day with the dexterity of a 

 Hooker or a Liudley. The forceps was lifted to separate the sepals and petals, 

 the lens to examine the number of pistils and stamens, and class, order, and 

 genus were determined by the competing botanists in a moment. ' They beat 

 my Cambridge boys,' said the Professor. ' We don't trouble ourselves here 

 about the Artificial system of botany ; we jump smack to the Natm-al.' One 

 little gu'l had detected a species of reed grass new to her. It was new, as occur- 

 ring in tliis locahty, to the Professor. It was new even to his o-mi private her- 

 barium, and rare in all England. A Hberal pinch of white snuff from Pandora's 

 box was the welcome reward. The girls were now examined as to the genei'al 

 characters of plants. A specimen was held vip and systematically pulled to 

 pieces, and the questions put were promptly answered in the coirrse of the dis- 

 section. All we can ourselves remember is- a Hfting of the forceps, a quizzmg 

 through lenses, a general consultation and whispering, and the simultaneous 

 echo now and then of such words as ' tetradynamous,' ' hypogynous,' ' polypeta- 

 lous,' ' syngenesious,' and the like, learned out of a printed foi-mula, which, 

 owing to the assistance of the boxmtiful goddess hereinbefore mentioned, had 

 proved much easier to them than the multiphcation table. ' They beat my 

 Cambridge boys hollow,' again remarked the Professor, with a smile. In con- 

 clusion, aU kneeled down on the clean brick floor, to repeat a short prayer to 

 the gracious Griver of plants that open out spring lessons for intelligent minds, 

 and we went out thoroughly impressed with the importance of natm*e-teacliing, 

 even in this sequestered pastoral spot. We would have given the world at that 

 moment for some claim to a share in the blessmg that followed the Eeverend 

 Professor home to the Eectorv." 



