IRature IRotes: 
tTbe Selbovne Society’s flDaoasinc. 
No. 31. JULY, 1892. VoL. III. 
HINTS FOR THE HOLIDAYS. 
HE time of the annual exodus is approaching. Those 
Avho have not already done so will be planning where 
to spend their summer holiday. At home or abroad, 
by mountain and stream, by the sea-shore or the lake- 
side, folk are betaking themselves in search of “ fresh woods and 
pastures new,” and the population of London will be reduced to 
the millions who somehow or other are to be found there when 
there is “ nobody in town.” Now is the time for Selbornians to 
put their principles into practice ; and a few hints on various 
ways of doing so may not be out of place. 
Perhaps the wild flowers, both at home and abroad, are in 
most need of protection, as they are the most defenceless against 
the attacks of depredators. The botanist is not always discreet, 
especially if his zeal for collecting is greater than his love for 
science ; but after all he is the least dangerous of the enemies 
the flowers have to encounter. There is the fern-grubber, for 
instance, both amateur and professional ; there are the young 
ladies — we have seen them in Switzerland — who trudge down 
from the mountains with baskets and handkerchiefs crammed 
with flowers, or rather with plants, which is far worse. Little 
harm, indeed, is done by plucking flowers, but towards the 
top of the mountains, where the Gentians, Androsaces, and the 
like, gain but slender roothold among the loose stones, and are 
more easily pulled up than gathered, serious mischief may be, 
and is done. Remember, ladies, that these delicate and fragile 
little flowers are not very likely to grow, even if you take them 
back to England with you, which you very seldom do. If you 
want to grow them, put yourselves in communication with Mr. 
Plenri Correvon, of Geneva, of whose garden some account was 
given in Nature Notes for September, 1890. He will supply 
your wants, and will even give you (for a consideration) 
