212 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL ch. ix 



sunshine, which renders it difficult for us to grow many 

 fruits and flowers which flourish even in the short Cana- 

 dian summer, lengthens out our seasons favourable to 

 vegetation, so that from the violets and daffodils of March, 

 to the heaths and campanulas, the knapweeds, and the 

 scabious of September or October, we are never without 

 some added charm to our country walks if we choose to 

 search out the appropriate spots where the flowers of each 

 month add their bright colours to the landscape. 



To the botanist, the poverty of our English flora con- 

 trasts unfavourably with the number of species and the 

 strange or beautiful forms to be found in many other 

 temperate regions, and to him it is a great delight to make 

 the acquaintance, for the first time, in their native wilds, 

 of the many curious plants which he has only known before 

 in gardens or in berbaria. But the simple lover of flowers, 

 both for their individual beauty and for the charm of 

 colour they add to the landscape, may rest assured that, 

 perhaps with the single exception of Switzerland, few 

 temperate countries can equal, while none can very much 

 surpass his own. 



