THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



45 



insisted upon whilst each form can 

 be picked out of one day's work on 

 so small a moss as this now is. 

 This being now a very dry moss, I expected 

 to find some light specimens, and was not 

 disappointed : still they are not so light 

 there as I have met with elsewhere on dry 

 mosses. As a home for Celcena Haworthii 

 it used to be celebrated, and there is still 

 plenty of such patches of low swampy 

 ground as this delights in, especially one 

 broad ditch-like cutting about a foot deep, 

 there its food grows in profusion. Acidalia 

 fumata was just emerging as I left the 

 moss in the evening, and was plentiful, 

 whilst the Crambidoe were in profusion^ 

 To sum up, Heysham Moss, though having 

 entirely lost its birches, and must not be 

 asked for Cymatophora flavicomis, &c. as of 

 yore, but for many moss species we may 

 still visit it successfully. To find it — and it 

 requires finding — go from Morecombe along 

 the Heysham Road to the strawberry gar- 

 dens, opposite the gardens go up a lane on 

 the left, go over the first gate on the right 

 in this lane, and walk under the high hedge 

 at the top of this field to the furthest end of 

 the field, then look over or through the 

 hedge when a clump of trees will be seen at 

 the bottom of the field, and the patch of 

 moss may be seen further away to the right, 

 with its turf stacks conspicuous in the dis- 

 tance. Make across the field to the gate 

 below for the clump of trees, and get your 

 net out there, for if you are a dipterist, or a 

 neuropterist, or a coleopterist, your work 

 will begin there. 



EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH 

 DELIVERED SOME YEARS 

 AGO BY MR. GLADSTONE. 



" I cannot help but say one word upon 

 that subject which I think, on the whole, 



has been worse used in the schools of this 

 country than all the other branches of 

 knowledge. I mean that which is called 

 Natural History. I speak of Natural 

 History, such as is open to you, both by the 

 study and the observation of living and of 

 dead objects in nature, such as continually 

 come round and solicit your attention. I 

 do not myself believe that Natural History 

 has had quite fair play, and I have always 

 felt it most grievous among the many blanks 

 of our early training that we were totally 

 ignorant of it. I will just give you these 

 four points in connection with Natural 

 History. In the first place it is a continual 

 lesson— a lesson at once easy and profound 

 — of the wisdom and beneficience of 

 Providence, a continual confirmation and 

 belief when you find the wonderful hand of 

 that Workman descending to the smallest 

 objects with the same care with which He 

 mounts to the greatest. The religious use 

 of Natural History is one that all must 

 delight in. The next point is this— Learning 

 is an admirable thing, but it does not always 

 make itself agreeable at the first introduction, 

 at least that was my experience, I dont 

 know whether it is yours. Much has been 

 done, I believe to improve these initial 

 stages. It certainly is a marked advantage 

 in the study of Natural History, that it leads 

 you on by the hand ; it inveigles you, if I 

 may say so, into learning what is good and 

 what is useful. Many a one might have his 

 mind first opened to the attractions of 

 Natural History, which mind, if once 

 opened might be capable of applying itself 

 to harder and more repulsive studies, 

 Another point is this, Natural History is one 

 of the best and most efficient means for the 

 education of the senses. Some may 

 perhaps tell us that our senses are educated 

 well enough already, and claim a quite 

 large enough portion of our existence. Of 

 course that is perfectly true so far as the 

 grosser forms of our enjoyment are con- 



