1858.] ARTISTS AND NATURE-PAINTING. 315 



tremely. Please remember the entire credit of the discovery of 

 the Dryas, which is in splendid abundance^ is entirely due to 

 him, William Williams. You may suppose that on that Satur- 

 day night I slept without rocking, and we contented ourselves 

 on the Lord's Day with a " Sabbath-day's journey/' which Dr. 

 Lightfoot conjectures was so far, as that one might be able to 

 return in time for evening sacrifice. Rev. Mr. Williams begins 

 the public service of the church at half-past nine, Welsh ; next, 

 Lower Vale, English ; immediately after which, Sunday School ; 

 then Lower Vale, Welsh, and reaches home for good a little be- 

 fore seven o'clock W. P. 



ARTISTS AND NATURE-PAINTING. 



The connection which should exist between nature and art 

 has been referred to in a recent number of the ' Phytologist,' 

 and your excellent remarks on the subject induce me to add a 

 few words in illustration of the importance of a knowledge of 

 botany to improve the taste in the art of design. 



After reading the observation made by you on the ivy-pattern 

 candlestick, I was led to look at some of the articles in my 

 sitting-room, and the first which caught my eye was a tablecover, 

 printed in difierent colours, and intended to represent flowers; 

 but, after a careful examination, I could not attach one to any 

 class or order, flowers of one plant being combined with leaves 

 of another, and united by the stem of a different kind. 



It is not in the painting and designing of flowers only that 

 we find these incongruities, but in modern landscape painting 

 are seen strange misrepresentations of trees, so that is impossible 

 to give them a name ; the character of the foliage is not at- 

 tended to, nor is the season of their growth distinguished. Some 

 of our painters paint their trees in half-length, giving the lower 

 portion only. These mistakes are not confined to painters on 

 canvas, but are made by artists who design patterns for porcelain 

 and pottery. On the paper which covers the walls of our rooms 

 we also frequently find figures totally unlike anything seen in 

 nature. The fair lady, also, whose pliant fingers so softly mould 

 the wax, often forgets to observe the true form of flowers, making 

 no distinction between stamens and pistils. 



