116 



' Twenty Lessons on British Mosses ; or First Steps to a Know- 

 ledge of that beautiful Tribe of Plants, Illustrated by dried specimens. 

 By William Gardiner, A.L S. Third Edition. Edinburgh : Ma- 

 thers.' 



' Twenty Lessons on British Mosses. Second Series. By the 

 same Author. London : Longman and Co.' 



' The Royal Water-lily of South America, and the Water-lilies of 

 our land — their History and Cultiv^atiou. By George Lawson, F.B.S. 

 London : R. Groombridge and Sons. 1850. Pp. 108.' 



Sketches of a Botanical Ramble in Wales. 

 By Edwin Lees, Esq., F.L.S. 



I HAVE observed that anglers, though by no means noted for their 

 peculiar powers of scientific observation, generally take credit to 

 themselves for noticing and enjoying the beauties of nature, doubtless 

 taking their cue from honest Izaak Walton, who really had an eye for 

 those little nooks of rural quietude which are unseen by such as 

 have no time or inclination for following the mazy wanderings of the 

 brook in its dreamy playfulness. So Mr. Scrope, in his ' Days and 

 Nights of Salmon Fishing,' says : — " If a wilder mood comes over me, 

 let me clamber among the steeps of the north, beneath the shaggy 

 mountains where the river comes raging and foaming everlastingly, 

 wedging its way through the secret glen, whilst the eagle, but dimly 

 seen, cleaves the winds and the clouds, and the dun deer gaze from 

 the mosses above. There, among gigantic rocks and the din of moun- 

 tain torrents, let me do battle with the lusty salmon, till I drag him 

 to day, rejoicing in his bulk." Why, to such a scene among the 

 wilds of the north we would gladly go, independently of doing battle 

 with the lusty salmon, which we would leave Mr. Scrope to provide 

 for us while we botanized, or transferred the exciting scene to the 

 pages of our sketch-book. 



But cannot the botanist in like manner enjoy pictorial beauty, 

 sketch the changing landscape, follow up the wimpling stream among 

 the hills, and imbibe a poetical sentiment from the scene, or even 

 impart a moral, as well as the denmre angler, seated beneath a pollard 

 willow and poring over the stream, his mouth watering for a bite ? 

 I confess a disbelief in the philosophy of baiting a hook, and had 

 rather walk on and find a plant than trust to the chance of a delusive 



