8 Our British Snails 



his cutting down a tree in the shrubbery of his 

 Kentish vicarage garden which forked curiously 

 from the ground, and also of finding that handsome 

 fungus which is scarlet flecked with white. This 

 shows that the observation of the marvels and 

 beauties of God's Green Bible, or Book of Nature, 

 began early in me. The habits of observation, 

 of comparison, and of method, are those which all 

 naturalists and collectors must have ; habits which 

 are of great value in other ways as well. Firstly, 

 one must have the seeing eye, and train it to notice 

 what many people do not. (Get and read the old 

 book, much read when I was young, called " Eyes 

 and no Eyes.") Secondly, one must learn to 

 observe the difference (sometimes very small, 

 although important) between one object and others 

 of the same family. Every one knows a wild rose 

 by sight ; but nearly every one would be surprised 

 to hear that botanists make out twenty kinds of 

 English wild roses, to say nothing of varieties and 

 hybrids. In all departments of natural history 

 a magnifying glass, for the dissection of inward 

 parts, is necessary in many cases to separate 

 two kinds which look alike. And, thirdly, if 

 you want to make a collection, whether of dried 

 plants, of insects, of shells, or of anything else, 

 you must cultivate ways of order and method 

 and neatness in the arrangement of your collection. 

 And then your increased powers of observation, 

 of comparison, and of method will stand you. 



