INTRODUCTORY 



if we like a thing we wish to know something The begin- 

 about it, to enjoy some intimacy with it, to learn ™nwiedge 

 its secrets. Who actually cares most for flowers, 

 the man who glances admiringly at them and 

 turns away, or he who studies their structure, in- 

 quires into the function of each part, reads the 

 meaning of their marvellous coloring, and trans- 

 lates the invitation expressed by their fragrance? 

 I doubt if he who has never been so brutal as " to 

 pull a flower to pieces," even dimly understands 

 all the strange, sweet joy of a wood walk, when 

 we are tempted eagerly — almost breathlessly — 

 but always reverently, with the reverence that is 

 born of even the beginnings of knowledge, and by 

 so much superior to that which springs from ig- 

 norance, to turn the pages and decipher what we 

 can 



" In nature's infinite book of secrecy." 



When we learn to call the flowers by name we 

 take the first step toward a real intimacy with The names 

 them. An eager sportsman who had always jf^ls 

 noticed and wondered about the plants which he 

 met on every fishing expedition, wrote to me a 

 few weeks since that hitherto he had felt toward 

 them as the charity-boy did about the alphabet, 

 " he knew the little beggars by sight, but he 

 couldn't tell their names " ! And it has seemed as 



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