April and May Flowers, 155 



APRIL AND MAY FLOWERS. 



In a preceding article, we have given some brief directions 

 to the best method of preserving specimens of plants. Of 

 the importance to the botanist of collecting and forming into a 

 herbarium the objects of his study, it is superfluous to speak. A 

 student will learn more in a few botanical excursions rightly 

 prosecuted, than by reading a thousand pages. He should 

 make it a rule never to allow a single plant he meets with to 

 escape the process of dissection and examination. " It may be 

 asserted confidently," says an experienced teacher, " that there 

 is not a botanist in the world, and there never can be one, who 

 has not analyzed and prepared with his own hand, at least three 

 hundred species of growing plants." For this purpose the pro- 

 ductions of unassisted nature are far more proper than the 

 often distorted monsters of the green-house and garden. Let 

 the student, then, betake himself to the green fields, to the 

 solemn woods, to the banks of brooks, to the dells of mountains, 

 where he can find, in their unsophisticated beauty, the favor- 

 ites of the sun and the air. And ever, as in some shady glade, 

 with the fresh spring wind blowing cool on his brow, weary 

 with walking, he seats himself to examine and admire the 

 treasures he has been collecting, let their varied shapes, the 

 harmony of their tints, the wonderful formation of their minutest 

 parts, suggest to him humble thoughts of their divine Author 

 and his, and fill his soul with admiration, awe and love. 



Old Izaak Walton has drawn so charming a sketch of the 

 feelings produced in a contented heart by contemplation of ru- 

 ral scenery, that we cannot forbear to quote it entire, since it is 

 applicable as much to the botanist as the angler. "I sat 

 down," says his pupil, " under a willow tree by the water 

 side, and considered what you had told me of the owner of 

 that pleasant meadow in which you then left me ; that he had 

 a plentiful estate, and not a heart to think so ; that he had at 

 this time many lawsuits depending, and that they both damped 

 his mirth, and took up so much of his time and thoughts, that 

 he himself had not leisure to take the sweet content that I, who 



