Introductory 



sometimes difficult for the flower-lover to 

 control his impatience when he hears his 

 favorites recklessly miscalled ; and in this 

 improving exercise he has ample oppor- 

 tunity to become proficient, for many 

 people cling with peculiar tenacity and 

 unreasonableness to their first erroneous 

 impression of a flower's name. They 

 consider anything so vague and poetic 

 fair game for* their ready imaginations, 

 glibly tacking the name of one flower to 

 another with inconsequential lightheart- 

 edness. Occasionally they have really 

 been misled by some similarity of sound. 

 Such was the case of an acquaintance of 

 mine who persisted in informing the va- 

 rious companions of his rambles that the 

 little pink-flowered shrub which blossoms 

 in June on our wooded hillsides was the 

 sheep-sorrel ; and refused to be persuaded 

 that the correct title was sheep - laurel. 

 His ear had caught the words incorrect- 

 ly; but although this explanation was 

 6 



