62 MY NATURE NOTEBOOK. 



THE PRIMROSE LEADER. 



Why recall this? Because no matter how the 

 men suffered from that searching east wind, that 

 chilled them to the bone, and filled their smarting 

 eyes with smoke and grit, the one thought in all 

 minds all that day was, " This wind will kill him ! " 

 for all knew that Lord Beaconsfield was clinging to 

 a slender thread of life that the keen east wind must 

 sever. And so it was : for on the morrow a great 

 hush fell upon each noisy troop-train as it reached 

 the radius of the black-bordered placards spreading 

 outwards from London, announcing that the great 

 earl was dead. None could have been blind to his 

 foibles ; few, perhaps, trusted him implicitly ; but 

 because he strove according to his lights, and often 

 against odds, to hold the honour of the Empire high, 

 men and women of all classes and many ways of 

 thought wear the primrose to his memory. And it 

 is a very worthy flower for the occasion. Whether 

 it was the " favourite flower " of Lord Beaconsfield, or 

 Prince Albert, or both, it might well be the favourite 

 spring flower of any Englishman. To its presence 

 we all owe some of our happiest recollections of the 

 beauty of sylvan nooks in England ; and neither west 

 of Calcutta nor east of San Francisco does memory 

 recall any natural scene more lovely than a woodside 

 primrose bank "at home" in April. 



A DISORDERLY FLOWER. 



In other ways the primrose is one of the most 

 interesting plants in botany. We often abuse scien- 

 tists for multiplying species, and drawing distinctions 



