No. XXXIV.] APPENDIX. 373 



they are not to be classed with the lovely Alpine flowers which decorate the 

 mountains in the Apennines and Pyrenees. I have many hundred species 

 of these. They can be grown with perfect ease on one condition, that you 

 allow no gardener to dig amongst them, and that you leave them carefully 

 alone as soon as they are established. I know of no greater pleasure than 

 to select your flower on the mountain and bring it home to plant in youi 

 garden, and then to see them as reminiscences of the beautiful scenes you 

 have before seen. My Alpinery is a very delightful place to me. I always 

 go there to see what flower is out ; the last was the Lily of the field of the 

 Bible, the plant to which were applied those celebrated words which I will 

 not now venture to repeat. That is an Amaryllis. In the sandy places 

 where it grows, it comes up and makes a display of bright flowers. Then 

 there are the Saxifrages, and the grass of Parnassus, which was thought so 

 beautiful as to be dedicated to the Muses. It may be found in Whitby in 

 quantities. Then there is another plant in the Alpinery which I must 

 notice, the Linncea borealis. It is the smallest of all the honeysuckles, and 

 that great naturalist chose it as a type of himself, because it had so lowly 

 an origin. He obtained permission from the king to use it in his coat- 

 of-arms. It is a very scarce plant, and I can hardly describe the pleasure 

 I have found in seeing it in a wood in Aberdeenshire. I brought a large 

 block with the earth on in triumph home with me, and there it grows. We 

 are not restricted to foreign plants ; our very woods and fields are beautiful 

 with flowers. There is no more beautiful plant than the marsh marigold ; 

 to see it growing in spring is a sight not to be forgotten. Its perfection 

 of form renders it a plant which is one of the beauties of our streams. The 

 purple loosestrife which grows by the banks of the Thames renders them a 

 perfect flower garden. When we find the wild digitalis, the wild violet, 

 the wild honeysuckle, and many other plants, we may say that there is a 

 beautiful flower garden in our woods. I was never more struck than when 

 I saw some drawings of some wild flowers ; I found that we had put aside 

 for our garden-flowers, others which had higher claims. The time has 

 nearly run out, but am I not to speak of my orchids, my bees, and my 

 flies ? Am I not to speak of the man orchid, which looks as though a 

 little man were dangling from the flower ? This is to be found within a 

 few miles of London. The curious fly orchid is not far off, and must not 

 be forgotten. The remarkable dancing girl orchid which we have in our 

 houses is worthy of notice ; every flower, by a little exercise of imagination, 

 is converted into a dancing girl. There is another remarkable one which 

 is called the dove orchid, and when you look into the flower of this you see 

 a perfect figure of a dove. It is looked upon with considerable superstition 

 by the Spaniards in Central America where it grows. I cannot describe 

 the many beauties we grow, and it would take much longer to describe the 

 plants we might grow. A garden must ever be a source of great pleasure 

 to a man ; it helps him over his troubles, soothes his nervous system, and 

 carries his mind from the beautiful things which grow there to the Author 

 and Designer of them all. 



