LETTER VI. 



THE MALLOW TRIBE — THE ORANGE TRIBE. 

 (Plate n.) 



Well do I remember the pleasure I used to have, 

 when a little fellow just sent to school, in gathering 

 cheeses out of the hedges : it was my first step in 

 Botany; and it was not without pride that I found 

 myself able to shew my less learned companions how 

 to distinguish the plants that bore those delicacies. 

 Many years after, when the cares and pleasures of 

 life had blotted out all remembrance of the joys of 

 childhood, I was passing a few days in Normandy, 

 with my friend M. de P., when, one day, his little 

 girls came running to me with their hands filled 

 with fine plump fromacjeons ; I know not whether it 

 was the association of ideas that the well-remem- 

 bered word conjured up, or the sweet countenances 

 of those dear children, joy painted in their black 

 and sparkling eyes, and health in their rosy cheeks — 

 but I ate their fromaoeons with as much delififht as 

 ever, and fancied them as superior to all the fruits 

 of the garden in flavour, as they are in perfect 

 symmetry of form. Only compare a vegetable cheese, 

 with all that is exquisite in marking, or beautiful in 

 arrangement in the works of man, and how poor 



