A COUNTRY NATUBALIST. 161 



inserted against his inclination. Of Wilson's 

 method of description here is a specimen — 

 crude enough, it must be admitted, but still 

 sufficiently clear to enable the student to recog- 

 nize the actual specimen : — 



" Wake-robin, cuckoo-pint. By hedges and 

 in shady places. On the top of the stalk grows 

 a long membranous sheath, of a greenish 

 colour on the outside, and purplish within ; in 

 which is enclosed a long naked purplish cylin- 

 drical pointal, whose lower part is encompassed 

 with a circle of shives. The pointal and sheath 

 fall off, and are succeeded by a thick cluster of 

 yellowish red berries." 



And so Wilson wrote the first great work on 

 English botany. To-day his name is hardly 

 known in his native town. He died in 1751. 

 A short time previous to this he had made a 

 strange remark, embodying a stranger request. 

 To a gravedigger he was wont to pass in his 

 daily walks, he observed : " If I have done little 

 good during life, I desire to be of use after death ; 

 let my body fill up this hole." The petition was 

 observed, Wilson being buried where he had y 

 indicated. 



