200 peesidbnt's address. 



which we do not realise, simply because we have never thought 

 about it. 



Another consideration ere I turn to a different subject. Every- 

 one knows that some plants are few and far between in their 

 homes. How the ardent plant collector revels when his good 

 fortune enables him to gather one of them, only to imprison it 

 amidst • the dingy folds of his drying book ! These plants are 

 either, may we not think so ? the stragglers of an army in re- 

 treat or the scouts of an army in invasion. It is by no chance, 

 but by some' law, which needs more observation than has been 

 given to it, that these rarities find their resting place. Again, 

 how can we account for the leaps and bounds which some plants 

 sometimes seem to have made. Their home easily traced many 

 many hundreds of miles away ; but a colony has been clearly 

 established in some remote far away spot, no intermediate station 

 being traceable. Thus at Roche, in the canton Vaud, in Swit- 

 zerland, in a wild forest, a Cyclamen, whose home is Italy, 

 sometimes known as the Cyclamen of Naples, is found in com- 

 parative abundance. Ifowhere else is it to be seen wild on the 

 north side of the Alps. "What has brought it to Eoche ? Whence 

 came it previously ? How has it overstepped the lofty Alpine 

 summits? Again, the beautiful Hierochloe horealis was found 

 a few years since for the first time growing in the Isle of Limmat, 

 a few miles below Zurich. JS^o other specimen was known. A 

 little while afterwards it was found growing near Einsiedlin, 

 the well known great pilgrimage route, from whence the torrent 

 Sihl rushes down through most picturesque gorges to the Lake 

 of Zurich. The suggestion naturally, presented itself to the 

 mind, " Oh, the seeds have evidently been conveyed by water to 

 Limmat, on the lower part of the Lake," and it is reasonable to 

 think so. But then the question comes. How was it introduced 

 to Einsiedlin? The place nearest to Einsiedlin where it is 

 known is Munich, and even around there it passes as a rai'e plant. 

 To find it in abundance one must go to the far north, towards 

 the coast of the Baltic. 



But I must pause, deeply interesting as such an enquiry as 

 the present one is, for if the pen were allowed to run on and 



