ASSISTED VISION 293 



for half-a-crown or three-and-sixpence, provides an 

 avenue for a vast deal of harmless pleasure. I 

 remember well, when grouse-driving one morning, 

 how I delighted a young keeper who was loading 

 for me, by the revelations of one such lens. He 

 had never looked through one before, and he could 

 hardly believe his eyes when it was directed on the 

 caterpillar of an emperor moth, which happened to 

 be crawling on the edge of our box. It is a hand- 

 some worm, even as seen by the naked eye, but 

 when magnified, its vivid green skin and salmon- 

 coloured warts present a splendid appearance. 



It is good to show a young gardener through a 

 lens some of the every-day phenomena that are 

 around him at his work, such as the irritable move- 

 ments of the stamens of any of the barberries (Dar- 

 winii is as good as any of them) : how quickly they 

 close up round the pistil on the insertion of any 

 external object, be it point of pin or tongue of bee. 

 Flowers present beauty in plenty to unassisted eyes, 

 but there is a vast deal can only be enjoyed by help 

 of a glass. Too many of us reject all auxiliaries to 

 vision, till the mournful day comes bonjour, lunettes! 

 adieu, fillettes I when we can no longer puzzle out 

 the bill of fare without spectacles. 



