350 INTEREST OF A WALK. 



would, in time, dislodge all the grasses, and pro- 

 duce a surface not well adapted for any kind of 

 culture. When land has once come to that state, 

 the only, or at least the effectual means of arrest- 

 ing the mischief, are the spreading of alkaline 

 substances, trenching, or paring off and burning 

 the sod. 



But it would be endless to enumerate even the 

 trains of speculation and inquiry that present 

 themselves to any one who studies vegetables, in 

 their connexion and succession, however narrow 

 the field of observation may be. A step taken 

 anywhere that there are plants, furnishes a study; 

 and that walk which does not afford reflection 

 for a week, must be very short, as well as over a 

 place comparatively barren. Even a public road 

 may answer the purpose, for there are the hedges 

 with their wild plants, creeping below or entwined 

 among the bushes ; and as the hedge is a sort of 

 hill, and the ditch a sort of valley, the two toge- 

 ther form a sort of epitome of a considerable tract 

 of country. The changes that take place in the 

 wild plants, from changes of soil and elevation, 

 present a constant succession of new objects, so 

 that, upon the most beaten path in the country, 

 the man who uses his eyes need never weary, or feel 

 tedious, even when alone. And if one be confined 

 to the same spot, the changes in time have just 

 as much variety and continual novelty in them, 

 as the changes with the change of place. The 

 spot must be a little one, in which something new 

 shall not be met with every day ; and whatever 

 is found, if it be examined in its relations to 

 other things, and to its own state previously, there 

 will be knowledge obtained. 



