Nonsense versus Knowledge. 27 



expand about the third or fourth hour after sunrise, and remain open until 

 the rays of the sun begin to fall obliquely in the afternoon, and cast upon 

 them the shadows of the hills and woods. If at any hour the sky is veiled 

 with clouds, they fold themselves in sleep, and leave the day to the more 

 humble yellow lily, the nodding Sarracenia, the Arethusa upon the shore, 

 and the dark-blue Pontederia. 



No green isle of palms in the bosom of Pacific waters can afford pleas- 

 ures to be compared to those which are ever ready to attend the rambler 

 on these shores. Love finds a paradise in these objects : Philosophy revels 

 in the same haunts as in the ancient groves of Academus. Almost all 

 productions of the region are gathered around these waters ; almost every 

 animate thing of the bird and insect host dwells here in a lively and 

 tuneful assemblage. The reflecting and inquisitive mind can never tire 

 of its researches in this studious solitude. For all the seasons have 

 garnered here a portion of their stores ; and both to the naturalist who is 

 familiar with the forms and habits of animate and inanimate objects, and to 

 him who studies only Nature's beautiful aspects, the lily-pond is a page 

 written over and over with myriads of lines, letters, and pictures, yet with- 

 out any confusion, and perfectly legible to those, who, shunning the frivo- 

 lous pleasures of artificial life, resort here to live nearer to Nature and to 

 happiness. Wilson Flagg. 



Boston, June, 1867. 



NONSENSE VERSUS KNOWLEDGE. 



It becomes the seeker after truth in the present day to so qualify him- 

 self for his vocation as to be able to discritninate between the crude and 

 erroneous conclusions so frequently given to the community in the public 

 prints and the mature results of elaborate investigations conducted by 

 experts in special departments of scientific research. 



I am induced to make these observations by the frequent occurrence, in 

 agricultural journals, of communications on various departments of natural 

 history, more especially that of zoology. One writer takes up a quarter- 

 column with a story of the minute insects of a coleopteric form, which, in 



