EiFRiu A PRACTICAL ANGLE 329 



hear them not. How much richer the life of one who knows a 

 little about the common forms in nature, to whom every tree, 

 flower, bird and insect conveys a story of the wonders of life 

 hidden in them. 



Take another case. How often travellers on railroads com- 

 plain of ennui, of being bored and tired by the trip! Not so 

 your nature lover ! He will eagerly drink in with his eyes not only 

 the large aspects of scener}^ vale and mountain, but he will also 

 eagerly search out the details. Here he notices a flower never 

 seen before, but he can guess whereabout it belongs; there a tree 

 new to him is passed close by ; and then he will recognize old and 

 new friends among the birds flitting away from before the moving 

 train. Recently I visited Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. From 

 Glasgow Junction to the cave one has to ride on a train of one 

 coach of the most primitive type, and apparently about to 

 break to pieces. It must be a relic from "before the war," if 

 not from before the flood. And as if not enough to expect one to be 

 jolted and banged around in this disreputable conveyance, they 

 extort ^2.16 for the trip of eight miles coming and going. Nor 

 are the eight miles thru especially attractive scenery; only 

 small wooded knolls, with the second growth often coming up 

 to the track. How soothing then to one's ruffled feelings to look 

 out and appreciate the new trees one sees. I saw for the first 

 time on this ride the Sorrel-tree or Sour-wood, Oxydendrum 

 arboreum, also the Hercules Club or Angelica Tree, Aralia spinosa, 

 growing wild, as well as about all the different oaks to be found 

 in Hough. 



Or take that bete noir of the traveller on the railroad, the 

 being compelled to wait for another train at some lonely junction, 

 where there is only a miserable village or not even that. At such 

 a junction in Minnesota I once heard my first Western Meadow- 

 lark, Sturnella neglecia, sing. In fact I always look forward 

 to such stops with glad anticipation for the chance it gives one 

 to hear or see something new in nature. 



Also auto rides are enhanced in pleasure immensely in this way. 

 Recently I was driven to Centralia from Vandalia, Illinois, through 

 flat, monotonous country, over bad roads, not even fine farms 

 being there. But when one family after another of Mocking- 

 birds flew across the road, and now and then a flock of Prairie 



