310 Canadian Record of Science. 



for which my friend, Mr. Brown, has promised to find a 

 place in the Society's Museum. But the considerable num- 

 ber of plants on which I stumbled shows how rich the grand 

 old island is in flowers, as well as in men,money and merchan- 

 dise, and how one may make his ordinary holiday serviceable 

 in enhancing his knowledge, especially of this department 

 of natural history, by keeping his eyes open. It may entail 

 some inconvenience on the collector's companions if they 

 are not animated with his enthusiasm, and large demands 

 have to be made upon the forbearance of the friends wbom 

 he may chance to be visiting, as he spreads about his room 

 each evening the spoils of the day's pursuit of specimens. 

 But with all the drawbacks involved, and the labour and 

 perseverance required in prosecuting the work successfully, 

 it adds immensely to the enjoyment of a tour in Great Brit- 

 ain to pick up every new flower which one comes across 

 and to which one can get legitimate access. You may 

 excite the suspicion of foresters and gamekeepers, and you 

 will certainly draw down upon you the wonder and pity of 

 peo'ple everywhere that you should consider it worth while 

 to be carrying away armsfull of what they call weeds ; but 

 all these little incidents will be gladly met, and whatever 

 risks are run are more than repaid by the delight that is 

 experienced in finding new specimens. There is no earthly 

 joy comparable to that which flows from discovering at last 

 some new plant for which you may have been on the look- 

 out. Even an amateur botanist can in some measure enter 

 into the feelings which are said to have moved the great 

 Linnaeus when he at last found a specimen of furze, Ulex 

 Europoeus, and kneeled down and thanked God for giving 

 him this favour. On my former visits to Great Britain I 

 paid no particular attention to its flora. Of course, no one 

 could spend nearly two years tramping through that coun- 

 try without taking notice of the more showy of its plants. 

 The foxglove, the broom, the whin, the heather, the hare- 

 bell, the daisy, could net fail to attract the attention of the 

 most unpractised eye, especially of a Canadian, to whom 



