120 WILD FLOWER PRESERVATION 



botanical text-books ; but if naturalists would 

 take the operation more seriously, we should 

 see far lovelier botanical specimens than is 

 usually the case. Hurriedly pressed plants 

 very rarely turn out well. 



A few years ago an enthusiastic botanist 

 asked me to look over his. collection of rare 

 species. A mighty portfolio was dragged from 

 its place, large mounts were tenderly handled, 

 and the learned one proceeded to declaim upon 

 the rarity of the specimens, their wonderful 

 construction and their exceeding beauty. 



Poor, wretched, wizened things! They 

 might have been rare, no doubt they were won- 

 derful, but their beauty had so completely de- 

 parted that my imagination was unequal to the 

 task of calling up the vision of what " might 

 have been"; besides which, I was cudgeling 

 my brains for suitable yet truthful answers to 

 the poor man's raptures. I was gazing at a 

 scare-crow, ugly enough to strike terror into 

 the breast of the most impudent of little spar- 

 rows, while a story of the plant's extraordinary 

 beauty was being poured into my ears. The 

 situation had its difficulties ! 



