310 CORRESPONDENCE. 



Artizan Naturalists. — The following extracts are taken from a 

 letter written by a Leicester stocking-maker, George Robson, who has 

 found means for self-ciiltivation while bringing up a large family on the 

 earnings of his frame. Thei'e are probably not a dozen men in Leicester 

 of all classes who know as much about the Natural History of the district 

 as he does, and none who love Natiu'e more truly and reverently. — F. T. 



MOTT. 



" I have at last managed to pay, once more, a v-isit to the home of 

 Oreopteris, and you will be pleased to learn that it is not extinct in our 

 forest yet, but even flourishes more plentifully than before. It is very 

 pleasing to know that I did not aid in obliterating one species of our 

 native flora from our much-loved Charnwood. I would be a soiver of 

 gi'ass, not a mower; a builder up, not like a dark iconoclast, a breaker of 

 God's own artwork. Last j'ear there seemed to be but little of the fern 

 Oiroptcriti growing near the wood, and, as you thought, it seemed to be 

 dwindling out ; but on reaching the lane last Sunday I was very much 

 surprised to find so many plants scattered along the wall that forms the 

 boundary of the wood. Indeed, I was much in doubt at first whether 

 they were not seedhngs of N. Filix-iiuts. There were at least twenty 

 roots of it in the ditch, off which I brought about a dozen fronds. 

 Enclosed are specimens, so that you may verify it yourself. 

 Sctitelliiria minor was also very plentiful at the foot of Old John 

 Hill, and what was more surprising was to find Hijdrocotijle viihjaris 

 gi-owing wonderfully fine in the lane, near the Oreopteris, even finer than 

 at Groby Pool. Enclosed, too, is a specimen of Pohjpodium calcareum, 

 from Miller's Dale, Derbyshire, which may interest you. I have paid 

 two visits to this district this year. The hflls and vales are magnificently 

 grand, both in shine and storm, for I have seen them in both, and shall 

 never forget the a^vf ul beauty of a thunderstorm witnessed from the 

 Heights of Abraham. The storm-clouds came up the vale hke night 

 advancing in column. They seenaed to reach from earth to sky, first 

 grasping the hills, then enwrapping all in Cimmerian darkness. As it 

 approached, the great rain-drops feU heavy and fast. It was like a 

 mighty and evil spirit ushered in by furies. The jagged lightning ran 

 up the dark as though a band of elastic fire had been stretched from 

 heaven to earth, and suddenly let go, the whole stroke being in view. 

 The storm moved past, and then came another sight I had never before 

 beheld. The sun gleamed forth, and there, right below, was a beautiful 

 rainbow stretching the whole length of the Dale, and parallel vnth the 

 river. It really seemed like being in another sphere to have a rainbow 

 at our feet. What a rush of feeling takes possession of one mid such 

 scenes as these, where we are shown new wonders, new beauties, and 

 grandeur on eveiy hand. We both take a new flight of thought and 

 feeling ourselves, and are enabled to better appreciate the deepened 

 thought of others. One could scai'cely witness such scenes as these 

 without thinking of Byron, who coui-ted nature in her anger, and who 

 has, perhaps, given us the best desci'iption of a thunderstorm. Then the 

 sunshine, and the rainbow ! One, who had read it, would almost be sure 

 to tliink, on witnessing such a scene, of that beautiful simile in Ehza 

 Cook's poem — 



I'd climb on any rainbow bridge, 

 To let my heart look further out. 

 And truly the soul does seem to look farther out, to be with nature in all 

 her wildness, and to be, as it were, nearer to God. The botany of 

 Matlock Bath is very rich and rare. Gcttm rivale grows in the street ; 

 (.'(irdmniiif impnt'tcnx along the Derwent, on the Lover's Walk, with many 

 others ; and on the hills any amount of Tlihifijii (ilpcstrCyViir. rirciis, can be 

 got. The botany of Miller's Dale was rather disappointing, but the 

 geology is grand. There was plenty of such ferns a& Cystoptenit J'ragilia 



