6 



productions of our Creator ? and should we value them only as they 

 are a source of profit to us? " God Almighty first planted a garden," 

 says Lord Bacon, " and, indeed, it is the purest of all human 

 pleasures :" so have we ever felt in our communion with nature, 

 and our happiest hours have been spent abroad in the fields and 

 hedgerows, for nothing 



" Bears the impress of Almighty power 



In characters more legible, than those 



Which he hath written on the tiniest flower, 



Whose light bell bends beneath the dew drop's weight." 



How sincerely do we hope that the following " Jottings'' may 

 induce many, who now complain so bitterly of ennui, and want of 

 that amusement which older countries afford them, to embrace 

 that delightful study in which there is always 



11 Something to please, something to instruct/' 



Never was there a wider field for such pursuits than in this 

 country ! We remember, on going into our native town, some few 

 years since, after a long absence, and collecting the indigenous 

 plants of the district, to the number of five or six hundred, within 

 a range of four miles, being asked by some friends, to whom the 

 treasures of our herbarium were exposed, "Did all these grow 

 here V " Yes," we exclaimed, " and many more ! " In a few 

 months there were twenty enthusiastic botanists, who felt then, and 

 then only, that he " misses one of the best blessings of life who has 

 not made to himself friends of the wild spring flowers." Think, 

 then, my dear readers, of the treasures awaiting you in this land, 

 where some ten or twelve thousand plants are indigenous ; whilst 

 those of our British isles do not number two thousand ! How 

 many a happy day have we spent on the banks of the river Yarra 

 Yarra, one of the most charming, perhaps, from its many windings, 

 and the beauty of the vegetation covering its banks, in the country. 

 Some short time since, wishing to " possess ourselves in much 

 quietness," we rambled from the bridge at Richmond as far as 

 Dight's Mill, some five or six miles on its margin, bearing in mind 

 honest old Izaak Walton's saying—" When I would beget content 



