LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



xxxi 



the Council of Education, and is being carried out in various 

 parts of the country. "We cannot here dwell on its manifold 

 advantages to an agricultural people, how it influences their daily 

 habits in after-life, as well as advances their material interests as 

 rearers of vegetable produce ; and we must refer to the numerous 

 volumes of the ' Gardeners' Chronicle ' in which accounts have 

 appeared, some by Professor Henslow himself, of the working 

 of these and other educational and social measures.* 



* As an exemplification of the methods employed by Prof. Henslow for the 

 gaining of the affections, and amusing and instructing the minds of his humbler 

 parishioners, we subjoin the following interesting sketch of some of the plea- 

 sures of a visit to Hitcham about eight years since, which appeared in the 

 'Literary Gazette' of July 9, 1853, from the able pen of Mr. Lovell Keeve. 



" A VILLAGE FLOWEE-SHOW. 



" Js a quiet corner of rural England dwells a pastor of the Established Church 

 — an eminent teacher of botany — whose educational views, sprung from a ma- 

 thematical university, have bent with peculiar grace to the influence of his pro- 

 fessional pursuits. For him the lilies of the field are as ministering elements of 

 thought and feeling, serving to rear up the minds of his flock in notions of 

 comeliness and order ; and to draw lessons from plants and other natural 

 objects, is with him a treasured step towards the development of an observant 

 and godly intellect. Let us see how far his village flower-show of Wednesday 

 last, more pleasurable after its kind than even the glories of Chiswick, confirms 

 the spirit of his teaching. 



" The ruling principle of the c H Labourers' and Mechanics' Horticul- 

 tural Society,' is, that every member should feel his independence as a contri- 

 buting subscriber. They are of the very poorest class. Few, very few, alas ! of 

 the parents are able to read or write. The subscription is sixpence per annum, 

 and out of tins small fund two annual shows — one of flowers and one of vegeta- 

 bles — are held with great rejoicing in the grounds of the Rectory. Prizes vary- 

 ing from 25. 6d. to a pinch of white snuff — i. e., peppermint lozenges — are 

 offered by the rector, gentry, and farmers, to the most successful cultivators, 

 and the award of the judges is looked forward to each year with as much com- 

 peting excitement as the gold and silver Banksian and Knightian medals of the 

 metropolis. There is, however, one important advantage which this Society has 

 over those of London. It gives prizes for Wild Flowers. Here, Flora is not 

 so drugged, and forced, and tricked out with hoops and flounces. Her mere- 

 tricious adornments of paint and patchwork are unknown in the pastoral village 



of H . Her botanical charms are here fresh and uncorrupt. She doesn't 



linger in heated rooms, and come forth an unblushing jade, all blossom, with 

 her retiring mantle of foliaceous green cropped to the shortest possible dimen- 

 sions. She breathes the atmosphere of heaven, lurks beneath the tmkling sheep - 

 bell, peeps out modestly from the hedgerows, and is plucked by tiny hands for 

 the sake of the lessons she gives. As the seasons come round, the children of 



H go into the fields to gather wild flowers, and a faithful record is kept and 



printed of the parish flora. Hard names, such as monocotyledonous and inflo- 



