PREFACE 



IT has seemed good, in deference to the wishes 

 of many friends, to gather together in book 

 form a number of my botanical papers, contributed to 

 various journals and magazines, which illustrate the 

 interest and delight to be found in the pursuit of 

 botany. 



Many of the articles in this collection appeared 

 originally in the pages of The Outlook and of The 

 Saturday Review, and my grateful thanks are offered 

 to the editors for their kind permission to reproduce 

 them. Similar acknowledgments are due to the 

 editors of The Quarterly Review (in which the first 

 article appeared, and which gives its title to the 

 volume), to The Cornhill, The Spectator and The 

 Treasury. 



I have ventured to include in this collection of 

 botanical papers one on the death-place of Izaak 

 Walton. It appeared in The Cornhill of last Decem- 

 ber, and aroused considerable interest. It will not, 

 I hope, be thought inappropriate, when we call to mind 

 the old fisherman's love of wild flowers. 



JOHN VAUGHAN. 

 THB CLOSE, WINCHESTER, 

 Easter, 1920. 



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