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NATURE NOTES. 
The work of the flower distribution continues — the love of flowers and the 
appreciation of them seems ever increasing — but, unfortunately, the number of 
donors has been smaller this year. This may have been partly owing to the 
death of the late Secretary and the comparative lateness of the season when 
the work was again taken up, as also to the wet summer, which made flowers 
scarce ; but it is earnestly desired that the friends of the Society would interest 
themselves in this branch, as a few flowers or plants, hardly missed from a large 
garden, may cheer a dreary worker and send a breath of sweetness and light to 
some of the darkest places of this dark city. It is much to be regretted that the 
funds of this Society did not allow for the usual sum of 3s. for bulbs, which 
will be sadly missed by the many to whom, through Messrs. Barr and Son’s 
liberal supply, the long winter was thus brightened. 
We hope that man}" of our readers will take up this work. 
It is best to send flowers that will travel well — Oxeye Daisies, 
Asters, Sunflowers of all kinds, and the like, are beautiful in form 
and colour, and last for a long time in water. l\Iiss Lilian 
James, 49, Manchester Street, London, W., will give all informa- 
tion as to the Kyrle Society’s Flower Distribution Branch ; and 
we shall ourselves be grateful to any reader Avho will help us to 
provide some large tvorkhouses and infirmaries in South London 
with floral brightness. 
One more hint, on so trivial a subject that one almost apolo- 
gises for mentioning it. But Mr. William IMorris, in his lecture 
on “ The Beauty of Life,”"'" has already draAvn attention to it ; 
and we tvill introduce it in his words : 
I will now speak of a minor nuisance which it is in the pow’er of every one 
of us to abate, and w hich, small as it is, is so vexatious, that if I can prevail on a 
score of you to take heed to it by what I am saying, I shall think my evening’s 
work a good one. Sandwich-papers I mean. . . . tVhen we Londoners go 
to enjoy ourselves at Hampton Court, for instance, we take special good care to 
let everybody know that we have had something to eat ; so that the park just 
outside the gates (and a beautiful place it is) looks as if it had been snowing dirty 
paper. . . . This sluttish habit is the type of many another in its way — I 
mean such things as scrawling one’s name on monuments, tearing down tree 
boughs, and the like. 
Yes, this is a little matter we can all attend to ; and if every 
Selbornian who goes up the river for a picnic during the 
bright summer weather we are all hoping for in July will see 
to it, and impress it on his (or her) companions and friends, a 
good piece of work will have been done. We have seen — in 
the beautiful Quarry Woods by IMarlow, for instance — so much 
debris of paper, broken bottles, tins, and the like, remaining 
after picnics, that, to compare small things with great, it could 
only be compared with the congeries of hideous things — black 
sheds, rusty rails, forgotten trucks, broken-dorvn carriages and 
the like — which seem inseparable from a railway junction. 
There is much devastation of beauty going on all around us 
which we are powerless to prevent ; but we can at least burn 
our sandwich-papers when we have eaten our sandwiches, even 
if we have to take them home for the purpose. 
* “ Hopes and Fears for Art,” p. loi. 
