THE NATURE-WRITER 117 



Reptilia; of the branch Vertebrata. But the na- 

 ture-writer never pauses over this matter to capi- 

 talize it. His tortoise may or may not come 

 tagged with this string of distinguishing titles. 

 A tortoise is a tortoise for a' that, particularly if 

 it should happen to be an old Sussex tortoise 

 which has been kept for thirty years in a yard 

 by the nature-writer's friend, and which "On 

 the ist November began to dig the ground in 

 order to the forming of its hybernaculum, which 

 it had fixed on just beside a great tuft of hepa- 

 ticas. 



"P. S. In about three days after I left Sus- 

 sex, the tortoise retired into the ground under 

 the hepatica." 



This is a bit of nature-writing by Gilbert 

 White, of Selborne, which sounds quite a little 

 like science, but which you noticed was really 

 spoiled as science by its "tuft of hepaticas." There 

 is no buttonhole in science for the nosegay. And 

 when, since the Vertebrates began, did a scientific 

 tortoise ever retire ? 



One more quotation, I think, will make clear 

 my point, namely, that the nature-writer is not 

 detached from himself and alone with his fact, 



