INTRODUCTORY. 11 



Miss M. I. Harris, has well expressed some of the associa- 

 tions connected with them : 



Treasures. I love ye ! though your bloom 



Has fled with your odour and rich perfume ; 



Though delicate tints no more appear, 



But, your gay guise doff'd, ye are pale and sear, 



Yet to mine eye ye Avill oft bring back 



The ■woodland dell or the mountain-track. 



Each hedge-row -wild, or beech-crowned hill, 



The winding valley or murmuring rill. 



And ye shall be memory's fairy keys. 



Unlocking her treasured stores at ease : 



And. though your own colours are lost for aye, 



Those from memory's land shall be bright and gay. 



So 3'our magical skill in wintry hours 



Shall enliven my landscape, gathered flowers. 



For preserving plants, there are some useful directions in 

 Mr. Bentham's British Flora. Much is often said about 

 the apparatus necessary for drying them — a great deal too 

 much. Two boards with a couple of stout straps, and some 

 sheets of paper (blotting or prepared paper is, perhaps, the 

 best), and a tin case to put plants in, will be sufficient for 

 most people. Those who intend to make a business of it 

 may, perhaps, add a small press. But, after all, many of 

 the best specimens will be those gathered by the way, and 

 at once placed in some old book put in the pocket for the 

 purpose ; if with a strap round it, so much the better. Any 

 traveller could carry this anywhere, even as high as places 

 where Mr. Whymper tells us he has found plants, at al)out 



