42 CHELTENHAM COLLEGE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
“THE COMMON FLOWERS OF CHELTENHAM.” 
BY MISS LAURIE. 
er 
= HE following is a resumé of a very instructive 
Co, lecture given to the Society by Miss Laurie, 
hei, of the Ladies’ College, on the “Common 
yee Flowers of Cheltenham.” — In choosing a 
subject on which to address you, it seemed 
best to take something which would be use- 
ful to those among you who are exploring 
the flora of the district around Cheltenham. 
The easiest way to get to know the habitants 
of a district is to take walks, gather specimens 
’ of all the plants and get some friends to tell 
you the names. This is the easiest way, but it is open to several 
objections. A friend with the requisite knowledge is not always 
at hand, and it is very doubtful whether any real knowledge of the 
subject can be gained in this way, for, after all, if we could tell the 
names of all the trees in a forest, should we necessarily know all about 
them? To know the name ofa plant is a very different thing from 
knowing the plant itself. What does really knowing a plant mean? 
Well, first it includes knowing all that can be observed of the plant 
by careful and persistent watching it, the way it grows, the time of 
_ year it flowers, the nature of the flower itself, the arrangement of the 
- leaves. But even this is only partial knowledge. What happens to 
; that plant during the long cold Winter, has it died entirely, will 
| another plant like it grow up from its seed? If so, where has the 
seed been all the Winter? And if the plant is one of those forming 
_underground stems and growing up in the Spring by putting out fresh 
' shoots, the problem is even more difficult, how has the life of the 
i plant been preserved in that underground stem when the ground has 
’ been frozen hard? Again, what is the relation of any given plant to 
t other plants? Where does it stand in the scale of existence? These 
are some of the questions that would have to be answered, before we 
~ should begin to know anything at all, in any real sense, about a plant. 
“Jn the limits of a single address it would be impossible to deal with 
