INTRODUCTORY 



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

 about it, to enjoy some intimacy with it, to learn knowledge 

 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 fibers 

 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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