Marple.. 33 



determined. Whatever the risk, better is it to extend 

 the area of a " thing of beauty," so that it may become 

 more and more " a joy for ever," and to souls that other- 

 wise might never behold it, than to refrain from such 

 endeavours on account of their causing technical in- 

 convenience. The gospel of genuine love of nature is 

 " increase and multiply." Scatter seeds as a true heart 

 seeks to scatter kindnesses ; technical science, like self- 

 ishness, will always take care of itself. With " collec- 

 tors," the dissemination of plants partakes of the nature 

 of a duty, since it is a set-off against any possible lessen- 

 ing of the abundance of those produced spontaneously. 

 To this end, it is allowable also to scatter the seeds of 

 exotic flowers, and thus to supplement nature in the 

 colonisations already effected. In our catalogues are 

 now admitted many names of plants known to be of 

 foreign origin, but which have come to England casually, 

 and have mingled with the aborigines, the evening-prim- 

 rose, to wit, and the opium-poppy and the list is yearly 

 on the increase. Even about Manchester we now have 

 the Clayto'nia and the Mim'ulus of North America, each 

 plant asserting and holding its place as coolly as if it had 

 been there since the days of the troubadours. 



Let us return awhile to Marple. This place is now 

 approachable, not only by way of Disley, but by a railway 

 of its own, the same as that which skims along the 

 hillside opposite Strines ; and which, branching out of the 



