38 
REMARKS ON BRITISH PLANTS. 
The engrossing love of novelty which characterises the present age, is almost 
sufficient to deter us from allowing any observations upon the plants which flower 
beneath our feet, and adorn the living landscape around us, to obtrude upon the 
pages of our Magazine. Objects presented to our daily gaze; springing spontane- 
ously from the soil ; and flourishing in blended beauty and prodigal profusion, 
without requiring the slightest attention or assistance at the hand of man ; are 
naturally enough regarded with that stoical indifference which imbues us when we 
hearken to a tale familiar to our ears from childhood, or scan a remark that has 
met our observation unnumbered times before. They occasionally obtain from us 
a passing glance, and that is all. A large proportion of those who traverse nature's 
domain, never stay to look at them, much less to examine and admire them. To 
pluck a wild or hedge-row flower, is absolutely considered puerile, and subjects 
the unsophisticated offender to derision. Thus the plants to which our father-land 
is indebted for all its loveliness, and on which we are in various ways more or less 
indirectly dependent for our very existence, are despised as unworthy of notice, 
and grow, blossom, and decay, unheeded and without regret. 
It were easy to show that this stolid apathy to the works and beauties of 
creation in our own immediate vicinage, is not only irrational, but culpable ; as 
the contemplation and investigation of such a subject is productive of instruction 
and delight, of the highest possible description. Nor can a situation be found 
in which natural productions are likely to be met with in such rich perfection as 
when luxuriating in a congenial and grateful clime, and in their native soil. We 
are happy, however, to find, that the above stigma attaches chiefly to the unen- 
lightened portion of the community, over whose minds ignorance, indolence, or 
prejudice, usurp and maintain an undisputed sway. 
The vegetation of the British isles is by no means so varied, so highly deve- 
loped, or so striking, as that of countries lying nearer to the equatorial line. It 
nevertheless comprises many very delightful species ; some of which are extremely 
valuable in ministering to the necessities of animal life. To the ornamental or 
o 
attractive flowering species, the following remarks will principally refer ; as we are 
anxious to render the study of British plants an agreeable and fascinating, as well 
as a beneficial recreation. 
An able botanist has justly observed, that in no country has the native vege- 
tation been so thoroughly explored and described as in Britain. Very few 
discoveries of undescribed plants have been made during many years past, and 
some of these have doubtless become accidentally naturalised from other, and in 
several instances remote, districts. Such, it is true, have now taken possession of 
the soil, and mature and reproduce themselves with all the vigour and certainty 
