INTROD UCTOR V 5 



to them. That this is a potent influence we had clear 

 demonstration, for on asking what we considered to be 

 a fairly representative person why flowers were more 

 attractive than fruits, the reply was at once forthcoming, 

 " Because flowers are so varied in form and colour, while 

 fruits are all alike." We trust that one of the results 

 of our present pleasant labours will be to demonstrate that 

 this is a libel and a fallacy, that a privet-berry and an acorn 

 are distinguishable the one from the other, that a beech-nut 

 and a blackberry are not so identical in form and colour 

 but that practice and observation will enable us to tell 

 which is which. 



Our purpose is a very simple one, to deal with the 

 principal typical forms that one may reasonably expect to 

 meet with during a country sojourn, and to deal with them 

 in the simplest way — caring but little to send our readers 

 to the dictionary in a wild quest for six-syllabled words 

 of weird appearance, but caring much if the result of the 

 perusal of our pages be to so far interest them as to send 

 them to seek for themselves in the great Book of Nature. 



We shall describe not merely the fruit alone, but give 

 such details of the plant that bears it as may, we trust, 

 increase our interest in it ; and our subject will be found 

 to fall very naturally into three sections : that dealing with 

 the plants of our hedgerows ; that occupied with the trees 

 of our woodlands ; and a third division, yet more compre- 

 hensive, that will concern itself with the Flora of the stream, 

 the breezy moorland, the meadow, and generally any locality 

 of botanical interest outside the locale of chapters one 

 and two. 



