CHAPTER XV. 



HORSEFIELD'S PREDECESSORS AND COMPANIONS.* 



Though I be hoar, I fare as doth a tree 

 That blosmeth ere the fruit y-woxen be ; 

 The blosmy tree is neither drie ne ded ; 

 I feel me nowhere hoar but on my hed ; 

 Mine harte and all my limmes ben as green 

 As laurel through the year is for to seen. 



CHAUCER. 



CHAPTER may here be legitimately devoted 

 to the men in whose wake Horsefield and 

 Crozier followed and to their own principal 

 companions. The history of these men is 

 peculiar. It is not simply that of indivi- 

 duals, but inseparably identified with that 

 of the botanical societies of South East Lancashire and 



* The following pages were originally printed in the Manchester 

 Weekly Times of July loth, 1858. It gave me great pleasure to 

 see that the article was made the subject of comment and lengthy 

 extract in Chambers 's Journal of the following October i6th, a 

 recognition of the general interest of the matter dealt with that 

 seems to me quite to justify a reprint almost verbatim, with correc- 

 tions that bring it up to the present date. 



