Country Rambles. 



number of mosses, fungi, lichens, and other flowerless 

 plants, usually regarded as a separate subject of study, is in 

 the aggregate probably quite as great, making a total of 

 some one thousand five hundred perfectly distinct forms. 

 Not that they are all equally abundant. We must distin- 

 guish between what botanists call the "Flora" of a given 

 district, and its vegetation. The "Flora" may be large, 

 and yet the mass of the vegetation consist of but few 

 different kinds, the same plants repeated over and over 

 again, as when hills are covered for miles together 

 with heath and whortleberries. Such is the case with 

 Manchester. Though there are seven hundred and fifty 

 different kinds of flowers and ferns contained in our 

 "Flora," probably not half the number go to constitute 

 the general herbage of the district. Some species are 

 very rarely met with, only once in the season perhaps. 

 But this is so much the more pleasing to the botanist, 

 since it keeps his enthusiasm vigorously alive. In 

 addition to the living objects of interest so freely supplied 

 by the fields and woodlands, Manchester naturalists have 

 a singular privilege in the local Free Libraries and 

 museums. The museum at Peel Park is in many depart- 

 ments rich and extensive, and nowhere in the world can 

 we consult books of greater value, or illustrated more 

 magnificently, than are to be had for the asking in Camp 

 Field,* at the Chetham College, and again at Peel Park. 

 All three of these admirable libraries contain works on 

 botany and entomology which it is really melancholy to 



* The "City Library," now in King-street. 



