RARE AND NOTABLE PLANTS 



rather to trace the thread of develop- 

 ment, and by examples of past and 

 present conspicuous plants to illus- 

 trate its growth. To do this properly 

 we should go back to the settlement 

 of the town itself, know the causes 

 which gave it birth, understand the 

 character of its founders and their 

 pursuits — its growth material and in- 

 tellectual, before we may be able to 

 meet its merits with an equal appre- 

 ciation. 



Alway while walking along our 

 Main street I am reminded of the 

 popular, well-known thoroughfare of 

 Oxford, England, which it strangely 

 suggests, and I sometimes wonder if 

 it was not this ancient street, and not 

 the central highway of Philadelphia, 

 which to our own principal thorough- 

 fare 150 years ago gave us High 

 street, a name by which it was long 

 kiown. Be this as it may, our Main 

 street in a very striking way re> 

 sembles its more widely known name- 

 sake abroad, a highway Hawthorne 

 described as "the noblest street in 

 England," and to which "Wordsworth 

 devoted a sonnet to the stream-like 

 windings of that glorious street." 



II 



