Fowler: Presidential Address to Lines. Naturalists’ Union. 235 
plants may be found, and as to how they can best be obtained 
and preserved. It is published by Gibbings & Co., and though 
quite a small book, contains much interesting and valuable 
information. Every plant, whether flowering or non-flowering, 
is full of interest, when not only looked at, but examined. It is 
sometimes said of us botanists that the beauty of plants is lost 
upon us, and that our only pleasure seems ‘to consist.in pulling 
them to pieces. For myself, and I think for many others, I beg 
to decline accepting this view, and hold that our admiration is 
greatly increased, rather than diminished, by our knowledge of 
their structure, of their nourishment, of their habitats, and 
of the marvellous means taken for ensuring their reproduction. 
I have yet to meet with the botanist who is insensible to the 
beauty of the Pasque-flower, the Meadow Geranium, the Drop- 
wort, and the Bee Orchis in our pastures ; of the Marigold, the 
Blue Bottle, the Greater Yellow Rattle, and the Larger Hemp- 
nettle in our cultivated fields; of the Marsh Gentian, Grass of 
Parnassus, Bog Pimpernel, Buck-bean, Asphodel, and Andro- 
meda on our boggy heaths; of the Wood and Tufted Vetch, the 
Rose, the Broad-leaved Campanula, the Yellow Loosestrife, and 
the White Convolvulus in our woods and hedges; of the White 
Water Lily, the Purple Loosestrife, the Yellow Iris, the Arrow- 
head, and the Flowering Rush in our drains and pools 5 of the 
Viper’s Bugloss, Broom, Gorse, and Rest-harrow in our waste 
places. These, and many other smaller plants which I have not 
time to mention, are beautiful to behold, but the unscientific 
have not a monopoly of their beauty, as they sometimes seem to 
think. We, who study them, see all that they see, but much 
more in addition; and the more we know of them the greater is 
our admiration of them, and our reverence for their Maker. 
An interesting subject for’ those botanists who are favourably 
situated is that of the extension of maritime plants inland, by 
way of tidal rivers. Most of them seem unable to exist far 
beyond the Humber mouth, but a few of them not only live but 
seem at home on the Trent banks for a considerable distance, 
Scirpus maritimus, Rumex maritimus, Aster Tripolium, Juncus 
Gerardi, and Glaux marttima to wit. The seeds of many others 
must often be carried up by the Humber, but not developed, 
probably because they require more salt than the plants above- 
d if any members finding maritime 
d 
may be added to those I already have. With a better collection 
- of data and comparison with those from other counties into 
ao oe 
