A COUNTRY NATURALIST. 153 



Let us take a type of the class. If one were 

 a botanist he found that the majority of his 

 predecessors had mostly comprehended the sub- 

 ject as it taught of the herbs and simples of the 

 wood — 



"Kue, cinque-foil, gill, vervain and agrimony; 

 Blue vetch and trillium, hawk- weed, sassafras ; 

 Milk- weeds and murky-brakes, quaint pipes and sundew." 



From this we see how fondly early naturalists 

 clung to old English names ; how they loved 

 to wrap about flowers the attributes their 

 fathers had done ; and how profound was 

 their wisdom in " herbalism." There is an 

 in tenseness and simplicity anent their dealings 

 with nature that is quite captivating. They 

 were not always infallible observers, however, 

 and often tripped in their facts. But then, 

 if natural science has any virtue outside itself, 

 it is that of which they sought to lay the founda- 

 tion — the habit of careful and accurate obser- 

 vation. These untutored students of botany 

 found their science something more, if that 

 were possible, than a mighty maze ; and as to 

 systematic arrangement there was none. 



To the common run of men these bygone 

 workers were "hobby-minders," and as such 



