EXCURSIONS. XXVli 
“God made the flowers for me and school-girls to 
admire, and through them to admire the super- 
abundant beauties of Nature. Some people seem 
to think God made nothing but shillings and pence.” 
He was a man who kept the purse-strings pretty 
tight, and had little pleasure in anything beyond 
his savings. 
On one of my earliest botanical excursions to 
Hoy, a friend and I went to Rackwick. The 
teacher there at that time was a young lady from 
Aberdeenshire. Having met her previously at the 
house of a mutual friend, we called. After chatting 
for a short time, she put the kettle on the fire, and 
said she would be absent for a few minutes, as she 
had to call on a neighbour. When she returned we 
were asked to guess her message. She told us. 
On the previous day, the unfortunate crofter had 
broken the family teapot, and as the grocer’s shop 
was about four miles distant, she had borrowed 
that of our lady friend, who was in the plight of 
not being able to make tea for us till she got back 
her only teapot. 
The botanist returns from his excursions at times 
flushed with success, bringing back with him new 
specimens, knowledge of new localities, new varieties, 
and new friendships formed. But there are other 
times when it is difficult for him to conceal his 
bitter disappointment. A plant has been reported 
from some locality not previously heard of. One is 
eager to procure specimens, and on the first oppor- 
tunity sets off in search, only to find that the plant 
does not grow there—a mistake has been made by 
