On drying Botanical Specimens. 391 



them : and how much time would have been rescued from the 

 alehouse, and how much money saved, if tliey had known 

 the pleasure which even indifferent music can give to a lonely 

 hour ! 



Here, then, is a plan which might be put in practice to- 

 morrow, with equal gratification to the scholar and the utilita- 

 rian, and yet nobody thinks of it. It is not an improvement 

 affecting separate bodies of artisans, but a whole population ; 

 it does not influence the workmanship of our furniture, or the 

 texture of our apparel, but the manners, the morals, the hap- 

 piness of a whole people. The mind is dazzled with the pros- 

 pect of its probable effects. Before half a century should pass 

 away, the moral face of the country might be totally changed ; 

 alehouses forsaken, gaming and quarrelling fled for ever, and 

 happiness and peace come to make their everlasting abode 

 amongst us. And who are the men to carry this into effect ? 

 The men of all others best qualified to appreciate it, the 

 clergyman and the landlord ; the very men who will gather 

 most pleasure from it, the former in contemplating improved 

 morals, the latter in beholding an improving tenantry. People 

 talk of pastoral innocence and pastoral delight, "Sicilian groves 

 and vales of Arcady," and yet never raise a finger to make 

 their own vales echo with melody, or to adorn their groves 

 with rustic elegance. Surely our groves are not to be lightly 

 esteemed, and we have vales as sweet as Theocritus ever sang. 

 But we choose to dream of by-gone days, and lament their 

 loss, forgetting that it is in our own power to recall them. Do 

 let us stir a little, let us try to effect something for lovely Eng- 

 land ; to form a population fitted for its beauty, and subjects 

 for future idyls whose freshness and truth may leave the Doric 

 reed far behind. 



I am, Sir, yours, &c. 

 June 24. 1829. Y. 



Art. VI. Hints tvith regard to the Drying of Botanical Specimens. 



By W. D. 



Sir, 

 Circumstances over which I had no control have pre- 

 vented me from sending, for the last Number of your Magazine, 

 *' a few hints with regard to the drying of plants," &c. In 

 my former paper (p. 15.) I took occasion to notice that all gar- 

 deners should be well acquainted with the manner of drying 

 plants, with what parts of a plant should in preference to 

 others be selected, and what was the proper season for gather- 



c c 4 



