INTRODUCTORY 



control his impatience when he hears his favorites An anti- 

 recklessly miscalled ; and in this improving exer- /; ^^, ar> 

 cise he has ample opportunity to become profi- 

 cient, for many people cling with peculiar tenac- 

 ity 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 light- 

 heartedness. Occasionally they have been really 

 misled by some similarity of sound. Such was 

 the case of an acquaintance of mine who persisted 

 in informing the various companions of his ram- 

 bles that the little pink-flowered shrub which 

 blossoms in June on our wooded hill-sides was the 

 sheep-sorrel ; and refused to be persuaded that 

 the correct title was sheep-laurel. His ear had 

 caught the words incorrectly ; but although this 

 explanation was suggested, supplemented by the Sheep- 

 arguments that the laurel-like look of the flowers s j™£_ 

 at once betrayed their lineage, and that the sheep- sorrel 

 sorrel was the plant with halberd-shaped leaves 

 and tiny clustered flowers which in spring tinges 

 with red the grassy uplands, he would only reply 

 with dignified decision that his conviction was 

 based on trustworthy authority. So, perhaps, in 

 at least one small circle, sheep-laurel is sheep-sor- 

 rel to this day. 



5 



