195 
AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS.* 
|NE drawback to the popularising of Natural History is 
the number of worthless books it brings in its train. 
Not only do folk write who have absolutely nothing to 
say, but they are not able to say that nothing in a 
graceful manner. It is bad enough when we find a book appar- 
ently constructed on the principle that it is the way of saying 
rather than what is said that is important ; but what can justify 
the production of books which have not even style to commend 
them? Yet such volumes there are, though happily we have 
not now to consider them. 
Mr. Higginson is not likely to write one of them ; he knows 
the state of the case too well. “No person,” he says, “can 
portray Nature from any slight or transient acquaintance. It 
may consume the best hours of many days to certify for one’s 
self the simplest out-door fact, but every such piece of knowledge 
is intellectually worth the time.” This is as it should be ; would 
that all Selbornians understood it, as their model, Gilbert White, 
did ! “ How surprised the school children looked, when the 
Doctor of Divinity from the city tried to sentimentalize in 
addressing them about ‘ the bobolink in the woods ’ ! They knew 
that the darling of the meadow had no more personal acquaint- 
ance with the woods than was e.xhibited by the preacher.” Let 
us all avoid the bobolink of the woods. 
In The Procession of the Flowers Mr. Higginson tells us in 
detail, and in charming style, how in America the wild blossoms 
follow one another. “ In England,” he says, “ the march of the 
flowers is in an endless circle, and, unlike our experience, some- 
thing is always in bloom. . . . Something may be gained, 
much lost, by that perennial succession ; those links, however 
slight, must make the floral period continuous to the imagination ; 
while our year gives a pause and an interval to its children, and 
after exhausted October has effloresced into witch-hazel, there 
is an absolute reserve of blossom until the alders wave again,” 
and that is not until March ! We are well content with our 
“ perennial succession.” 
Ftill of observation as this little book is, we like our author 
best in his reflections and comments. Here is a passage which 
will commend itself to Selbornians : — 
It is no wonder that there is so little substantial enjoyment of Nature in the 
community when we feed children on grammars and dictionaries only, and take 
no pains to train them to see that which is before their eyes. The mass of the 
community have “summered and wintered” the universe pretty regularly, one 
* The Procession of the Flowers, and kindred papers, by Thomas Wentworth 
Higginson. New Y ork and London : Longmans, price 5s. 
Wild Flowers of Scotland, hy ]. H. Crawford, F.L.S. Illustrated by John 
Williamson. London : John Macqueen, price 6s. 
Familiar Wild Flowers, by F. E. Hulme. London : Cassell. 
