6 FOOTING IT IN FRANCONIA 



how problematical the identity of the plant 

 really was. Professor So-and-So had pro- 

 nounced it Lindleyanus, but Doctor Some- 

 body-Else believed it to be only an odd form 

 of a commoner species. In the Wallace Hill 

 woods, I remember how we spent an after- 

 noon there, he and I, only two years ago, 

 searching for an orchid which just then had 

 come newly under discussion among botan- 

 ists, and how pleased he was when for once 

 my eyes were luckier than his. If we are 

 on the Landaff road, my com]3anion asks, 

 " Do you remember the Sunday noon when 



we went home and told E that this wood 



was full of his rare willow ? And how he 

 posted over here by himseK, directly after 

 dinner, to see it ? And how he said, in a tone 

 of whimsical entreaty, ' Please don't find it 

 anywhere else ; we must n't let it become too 

 common ' ? " Oh yes, I remember ; and my 

 companion knows he has no need to remind 

 me of it ; but he loves to talk of the absent, 

 — and he knows I love to hear him. 



That willow I can never see anywhere 

 without thinking of the man who first told 

 me about it. Whether I pass the single 



