xiv INTRODUCTION 
always reflects her environment, and it reflects some- 
thing her environment knows not of. We taste the 
clover, the thyme, the linden, the sumac, and we 
also taste something that has its source in none of 
these flowers. 
The literary naturalist does not take liberties 
with facts; facts are the flora upon which he lives. 
The more and the fresher the facts the better. I 
can do nothing without them, but I must give them 
my own flavor. I must impart to them a quality 
which heightens and intensifies them. 
To interpret Nature is not to improve upon her: 
it is to draw her out; it is to have an emotional 
intercourse with her, absorb her, and reproduce her 
tinged with the colors of the spirit. 
If I name every bird I see in my walk, describe 
its color and ways, etc., give a lot of facts or details 
about the bird, it is doubtful if my reader is inter- 
ested. But if I relate the bird in some way to 
human life, to my own life,—show what it is to 
me and what it is in the landscape and the season, 
—then do I give my reader a live bird and not a 
labeled specimen. 
J. B. 
