THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
nature, but you may be permitted to doubt it. Far better 
than the indiscriminate flower-gatherer is the herborizer 
with vasailum and press, but fortunately that relic of a 
former generation is fast going out of style. Ver>' little can 
be said against the student with an herbarium collected by, 
himself, but the average individual who by exchanging aims 
to amass a large herbarium— as if mere size were a desider- 
atum—might l>etter be engaged in collecting postage stamps 
leer \ov phuiiing the wild sliru!>s and trees that prolong 
autunm into winter and attract the late birds by their ber- 
.-^til! n-ansplant columbine, lilue-bclls. trilliuni.-;. asters, sun- 
ilower>. and many another to brighren the place until frost. 
If you have no grounds at all. tiie l>est advice that can l>e 
given you is to move. You cannot understand how much 
you are missing until you have ix>ked alxxit among the dead 
leaver in the Iwrdcrs of your own grounds and found the 
fresh, green spires of developing plants imping alDOve the 
mould early in spring, or watched the same tiny green spires 
wax strong and vigorous, unfurling at last their handsome 
flowers for y.air d.elight and comfort. 
All flowers, even the so-called florist's flowers, are 
found wild somewhere or are descentled from wild aiice'^rry. 
:\Iany of those offered by the plant dealer are most desir- 
able for cultivation even by the botanist. Of c^ourse. the 
totanist will take care to select i>erennia!s atid >uch perenni- 
als as have not l:>een tampered with by the florist untd 
stamens have l>een turned to leaves and th.e flowers bred 
into monstrosities, lliere is a long list to select from, and 
