m 



The Naturalist, 



is wrong, for althougli beauty has a just claim upon our regard, yet 

 its absence in a plant or animal, as in a human being, ought not to 

 make us despise them. Not, however, that any animal or plant is 

 really devoid of beauty ; if we examine it closely we shall always find 

 such an adaptation of structure to function as may well excite our 

 admiration. While on the one hand many large and important orders 

 of animals and plants are passed over unnoticed except by the 

 professed zoologist or botanist, on the other hand the number of 

 collectors at work on the fasliionable orders is such as to cause a 

 serious diminution of the numbers, or even the extinction, of the rarer 

 species. In botany the ferns are a notable instance, but the same 

 thing takes place with other conspicuous and 'attractive plants, as the 

 OrcJdds. No sooner does a rare bird make its appearance than it is 

 relentlessly pursued and shot. I cannot think, however, that these 

 ravages are to be blamed to science, but rather to the greed of gain, 

 to the love of destruction under the name of " sport," and to the 

 thoughtless and selfish rapacity of collectors for fashion's sake. The 

 true man of science seeks to preserve and not to destroy. The buying 

 of specimens, especially of dealers, should be discouraged, as it 

 stimulates the activity of a class of collectors who are influenced by 

 no considerations higher than those of gain, and this leads to the 

 extermination of rare species. This does not hold good in the case 

 of geological specimens, for here the field is practically exhaustless ; 

 and the knowledge that such things have a money value induces 

 quarrymen to preserve specimens which W4»uld otherwise be thrown 

 away as useless. 



If, then, there are any among my audience who are commencing, or 

 thinking of commencing, the study of natural history, I would strongly 

 urge them not to confine themselves to the fashionable orders, but to 

 take up the neglected ones. It may perhaps be necessary to start 

 along some beaten path, but depend upon it you will see more of the 

 beauties of nature in the bypaths than on the high road, and you will 

 find a wider field open to you, and a larger harvest remaining to be 

 reaped. The botanist who confines himself to the flowering plants 

 has nothing to do out-of-doors for nearly half the year, whereas the 

 cryptogamic botanist is never without objects of interest. In the 

 autumn and winter, when the flowers are fading and gone, the woods 

 and fields abound with fungi ; in winter and early spring most of the 

 mosses and liverworts are in perfection ; later in the spring is the 

 best time for the fresh-water algte ; while lichens may be found all 

 the year round. The mosses and lichens have this great advantage 



