SELBORNIANA. 
75 
SELBORNIANA. 
Wanted, a Primrose League — not a political association, but a 
League for the Protection of the Primrose. We very earnestly exhort Selbornians 
to show their faith by their works, and to discourage by every means in their 
power the wanton destruction of one of our most charming wild flowers under the 
mistaken notion that thereby honour is done to a deceased statesman. It is not 
against the galherm^ of primroses that we protest, but against the wholesale up- 
rooting of plants, which is sadly too prevalent. This year the poor primrose is in 
double danger, for Easter Day and “Primrose Day ” come close together. We 
would implore all true Selbornians to spread as much as possible the teaching 
which “ Olivia Primrose ” puts forward in another part of the present number. 
Are they Inaccurate? — We all remember .Esop's fable of “The Old 
Man and his Ass.” The Editor of Nature Notes often finds himself in the 
position of the former when he began his journey, but he has no present intention 
of imitating his conduct, nor of throwing his burden over the bridge. He will, 
indeed, do his best to please everybody, but when this becomes impossible, he 
must either leave his friends to fight it out (within due limits), as is being done on 
the great Sparrow question, or decline to enter upon what would be a long and 
wearisome controversy. This latter course he is compelled to adopt with refer- 
ence to “ Sport,” which was the subject of an article in the February number. For 
this article he has been both praised and blamed ; he has been begged to push the 
matter farther, and censured for having already gone too far. From which he ven- 
tures to hope that he has taken the middle course, which is proverbially the safest. 
A letter, however, from Mr. F. G. R. Duke, of Braehead, Kilmarnock, 
charges us (we must resume the usual editorial mode of address) with having 
based our conclusions “ on statements which have been shown to be inaccurate, 
and which [we] should have recognised as prompted by feeling far removed from 
any real love for animals.” The latter point, being a matter of opinion, need not 
be further noticed ; the former charge is more serious, and we therefore wrote 
to Mr. Duke, informing him that, if he would tell us where the inaccuracy of 
the statements in question had been shown, we would at once publish a correction 
of them. His only reply was a curt rather than courteous acknowledgment of our 
letter. 
No cause is benefited by inaccurate or exaggerated statements. We have no 
intention of employing either, and w'e trust our readers will not hesitate to call us. 
to account should we appear to do so. In the present instance, however, we cited 
the sources of our information, which appeared to us worthy of credence, and we 
are not prepared to admit their inaccuracy on Mr. Duke's unsupported ipse dixit. 
Death of Miss Gifford. — The Journal of Botany for March contains a 
sketch of the life of Miss Isabella Gifford, of Minehead, a careful student of 
British seaweeds, and author of a popular handbook. The Marine Botanist, 
in which they are described. Miss Gifford (who was born at Swansea about 1823, 
and died at ^linehead on the 26th of last December) joined the Selborne Society 
in 1890. “ I would have tried,” she then wrote, “ to get a branch established here, 
did my health permit of it, but I must not undertake more duties than fall to my 
share, and which I can only most inadequately perform.” Miss Gifford lived with 
her mother, “ a very quiet life, but a most refreshing one to come in contact with, 
because of its unworldliness, and its large and genial sympathy. Influenza 
attacked the household before Christmas, and mother and daughter passed away 
within twenty-four hours of each other. They were laid to rest on New Year’s 
Eve in the beautiful churchyard of Minehead, surrounded with hills and sky and 
sea ; a fitting resting place for one who loved Nature so truly.” 
“The Wild Flowers of Selborne.” — This is the title of a paper by 
the Rev. John Vaughan in Longman’s Magazine for .March, the purpose of which 
is “ to compare the botany of .Selborne as chronicled by Gilbert White in 1778. 
with what we know of it to-day.” The same writer gave a more strictly botanical 
summary of the same comparison in the Journal of Botany for December, 1887, 
