Under the Acorns 



one in the fields, and yet curious anomaly if you 

 point out anything or describe it, the interest ex- 

 hibited is marked. Every one takes an interest, but 

 no one goes to see for himself. For instance, since 

 the natural history collection was removed from the 

 British Museum to a separate building at South 

 Kensington, it is stated that the visitors to the 

 Museum have fallen from an average of twenty-five 

 hundred a day to one thousand; the inference is, that 

 out of every twenty-five, fifteen came to see the 

 natural history cases. Indeed, it is difficult to find a 

 person who does not take an interest in some depart- 

 ment of natural history, and yet I scarcely ever meet 

 any one in the fields. You may meet many in the 

 autumn far away in places famous for scenery, but 

 almost none in the meadows at home. 



I stayed by a large pond to look at the shadows of 

 the trees on the green surface of duckweed. The 

 soft green of the smooth weed received the shadows 

 as if specially prepared to show them to advantage. 

 The more the tree was divided the more interlaced 

 its branches and less laden with foliage, the more it 

 " came out " on the green surface; each slender twig 

 was reproduced, and sometimes even the leaves. 

 From an oak, and from a lime, leaves had fallen, and 

 remained on the green weed; the flags by the shore 

 were turning brown; a tint of yellow was creeping 

 up the rushes, and the great trunk of a fir shone 

 reddish brown in the sunlight. There was colour 

 even about the still pool, where the weeds grew so 

 thickly that the moorhens could scarcely swim 

 through them. 



