188 VIRGINIA 



at once upon a bank thickly set witli plants 

 quite unknown to me. There they stood, 

 in all the charms of novelty, waiting to be 

 discovered : low shrubs, perhajis two feet in 

 height, of a very odd appearance, — not con- 

 spicuous, exactly, but decidedly noticeable, 

 — covered with drooping racemes of small 

 chocolate-colored flowers. The}^ were di- 

 rectly upon the roadside. With half an eye, 

 a man would have found it hard work to 

 miss them. " The observation of nature " ! 

 Verily it is a great study, and its devotees 

 acquire an amazing sharpness of vision. 

 How many other things, equally strange and 

 interesting, had I left unseen, both going 

 and coming? I ought perhaps to have been 

 surprised and humiliated by such an experi- 

 ence ; but I cannot say that either emotion 

 was what could be called poignant. I have 

 been living with myself for a good many 

 years ; and besides, as was remarked just 

 now, all our doings are under the universal 

 law of selection and exclusion. On the 

 whole, I am glad of it. Life will relish the 

 longer for our not finding everything at 

 once. 



The identity of the shrub was quickly 



