8 ** With the Yorkshire Naturalistsr 



naturalist bnf a good companion. Thus ended a well- 

 spent day. There can be no doubt that such excursions 

 are productiTe of an immense amount of good. Flowers 

 are beautiful for their colours alone, it is true, and the 

 landscape is pleasing to the eye, as is the song of the bird 

 to the ear ; but the enjoyment is multiplied a thousand 

 fold when each boulder on the road, every patch of green 

 moss at the water fall, every butteifly that flutters in the 

 sunbeam, speaks a volume. The head as well as the heart 

 is then gratified, and how easy, with patience and per- 

 severance, it is thus to enjoy " the charms of nature," is 

 evident from the fact that everything on the face of 

 the earth, in the heavens above the earth, and in the waters 

 under the earth, has a lesson to teach to those who are 

 willing to learn. Look for instance at a little daisy I 

 Simple and humble as it is. yet if we peer into its golden 

 disc, we see in it one of Nature's most complicated and 

 delicate works — a whole head of flowers, each in perfect 

 miniature, crowded into a circle of half-an-inch diameter. 

 The circlet of single blosBom is in reality a thick-set head 

 of lovely little bells, clustered thickly together, each with a 

 yellow fringe, shaped like a Canterbury Bell. In the very 

 heart of the flower, each tiny fl ixei is still unopened — in 

 the bud so to speak — and they stand like little golden 

 knobs too small to be courted by the naked eye. Each 

 one is a perfect miniature flower. Is not all this worth 

 knowing ? Is it not worth while to inquire into the why 

 and the wherefore of the arrangement, to learn all about 

 the joint effect of incident sunlight, freer elbow room, 

 natural selection, and a host of other things that can- 

 not be entered upon here ? Surely it is, and it is in 

 this way that flowers, and insects, and birds, and rocks 

 should be studied, not simply gazed at ; as well ask the 

 blind to enjoy the glories of a sunset, or exhort the deaf 

 to drink in the sublime strains of Beethoven, as expect an 

 ignoramus thoroughly to enjoy a walk in the country. 



