1859.] PLANTS AND PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY. 357 



Melica nutans, growing among the heather, no other rare plant 

 did I detect. 



The foregoing desultory remarks I have committed to paper as 

 they occurred to my mind ; and if I can induce others who read 

 this most excellent periodical (' The Phytologist ') to a more 

 earnest study of our British wild flowers, in order that they may 

 be partakers of the pleasures, the pure and soul-ennobling plea- 

 sures, that spring from the examination of that fairest portion of 

 God's creation, the vegetable kingdom, I have gained my object. 

 Finally, Reader, if you have not in earnest studied botany, begin 

 now ; the outlay of a few shillings is all that is required to enable 

 you to be acquainted with the habits and habitats of our British 

 plants. 



In a word, I would say, if you want to be a botanist, buy a 

 book, read it, and go to the fields, and you will, beyond doubt^ 

 succeed. 



John Sim. 



PLANTS AND PEOVEEBIAL PHILOSOPHY. 



It appears that the science of botany is still in its infancy, or, 

 at most, its boyhood ; when will it grow into maidiood, so that 

 every one who has a mind to, may know something more of it ? 

 Some persons might exclaim, when they take up the ponderous 

 Herbals of Gerarde, Parkinson, and Salmon, that botany must 

 be a heavy, dull affair, and will never become fashionable. But 

 let us not despair. Excelsior ! must be the botanist's motto, as 

 he culls the bright flowers from the carpet of Nature ; for in that 

 alone he is not satisfied ; they have a history beyond a " local 

 habitation and a name.^' They have virtues and uses given by 

 the Divine power by whom they were created for the benefit of 

 man. We must learn as we live, and not forget that life without 

 knowledge is death. 



I wish to call the attention of your readers to a work 

 called ' Proverbial Philosophy,^ a fashionable work, as books are 

 sometimes called, written by Martin Tupper, in which he tells 

 his readers something about plants and flowers ; but not being 

 so far advanced as most of your readers are in the science of 



