THOSE TO WHOM WE APPEAL 35 



us the pleasant days of their acquisition ; those 

 most enjoyable rambles alone or with congenial 

 companions over open moorland, in the woodland 

 recesses, by the banks of some placid stream, any- 

 where and everywhere a delight. Others of our 

 plants again, commonplace as they may seem to 

 the commonplace, have an interest from their 

 literary and legendary associations, from their 

 medicinal value, real or reputed, from their fancied 

 astrological influence, from many reasons that, if 

 not immediately evident, and perhaps the better for 

 not being thus conspicuous, amply repay their study. 

 Should the unhappy man to whom we have already 

 referred, of whom it is recorded that he really saw no 

 special interest in a primrose, or any one akin to him, 

 take up this our book they will doubtless promptly 

 lay it down again, well content that they neither 

 know nor seek to know the things of which it treats : 

 but to others, nature-lovers, it will, we trust, appeal 

 in its attempt to declare and set forth the interest 

 that may be found in the study and cultivation of 

 the wildlings that in profusion spring up around us, 

 and to indicate something of their charm. 



the bog pimpernel for identification, as she and her friends 

 could not decide what it was. To this appeal, most cour- 

 teously worded, we never replied ; the letter we received 

 gave only the name of the residence, no town being added, 

 while the post-mark was too blurred for identification. We 

 trust that this may meet her eye, so that we may at last 

 be absolved ! 



