2 Anniversary Address. 



alone. Tn fact, I may be said to have revolted from the 

 suggestion. In my dilemma I turned to Dr Hardy, who at 

 once, in his own unhesitating way, declared for " Selkirk- 

 shire." Now, this did not chime with a desire I had been 

 cherishing to say something in praise of the objects of the 

 Club; so, acting on Shakespeare's advice to "take each 

 man's censure, and reserve one's judgment," I fell upon a sort 

 of compromise. With your forbearance, I shall devote a few 

 minutes to magnifying the mission of the Berwickshire 

 Naturalists' Club, and to illustrating its advantages by the 

 light its researches throw on the ancient Shire of the Forest. 

 To be absolutely en regie, a justification of the Club ought, 

 no doubt, to be based on its services to Natural History ; 

 but, unfortunately, I am not a IS' aturalist. It is to be hoped 

 there is sympathy in the minds and hearts of our scientific 

 members for those who love the same objects, but cannot give 

 them the same names. It is well to be able to indicate upon 

 some verdant slope the particular plant known as Thymus 

 serpillum, to know one flower as Primula elatior, and 

 another as Viola odorata ; to tell Lonicera periclymenum. 

 from Rosa ruhiginosa ; but surely he is not less a student 

 of Nature, who sees them as clearly in another way : — 



I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows. 

 Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, 

 All overcanopied with lush woodbine, 

 With sweet mnsk-roses and with eglantine — 

 And there Titania sleeps. 



Many there are who would be hard put to it to name the 

 Daisy in Latin, but in whom the sight of it awakes a rush 

 of charming associations. It is to them the "wee, modest, 

 crimson-tipped flower" that inspired one of Burns's flnest 

 odes. Did he not sing of it that " the openin' go wan, wat 

 wi' dew, nae purer is than Nannie, !" And there is the 

 joyous song of the lover in " Maud" — 



I know the way she went, 



Home with her maiden posy, 

 For her feet have touched the meadows, 



And left the daisies rosy. 



