12 THE MUSIC OF WILD FLOWERS 



" so as to form large and tall thickets visible at a great 

 distance," or of the very rare man-orchis, Acer as 

 anthropophom, which he found " growing profusely on 

 Colley and Buckland Hills and between Box Hill and 

 Juniper Hill." When on a visit to the Isle of Wight 

 Mill noticed on the shore of Sandown Bay a single speci- 

 men of the purple spurge, the^ only record of this extra- 

 ordinarily scarce plant in the island. The specimen is 

 still preserved, the most interesting, alike for its rarity 

 and on account of its finder, in the Bromfield collection 

 of island plants. After the death of his wife at Avignon, 

 in 1859, Mill bought a cottage near to the place of 

 her burial, and there he mainly resided during the 

 remainder of his life. He found some consolation in 

 his love of wild flowers and busied himself in gather- 

 ing together materials for a Flora of Avignon. Only 

 three days before his death he walked over fifteen 

 miles in search of some rare species. His herbarium 

 of British plants he bequeathed to the museum at 

 Kew. 



Passing from philosophers to poets, we should not 

 unnaturally expect to find among the latter a larger 

 number of individuals interested in our native flora. 

 Our literature abounds in passages in which the praises 

 of the country-side are sung. And yet, apparently, but 

 few of our poets cared for the pursuit of herbalising. 

 There are many interesting allusions to wild flowers in 

 the plays of Shakespeare and in the poems of Milton, 

 but they are more or less of a literary character. 

 Neither Thomson, who in his Seasons revived the poetry 

 of nature, nor Wordsworth, though he celebrated the 

 daisy and the celandine and the daffodil, nor Cowper, 

 though he recognised the intimate charm of country life, 



