Mature Motes: 
Ube Selborne Society’s fTDagastne. 
No. 6. JUNE 14, 1890. Vol. I. 
THE PLANT ALLUSIONS IN THE POEMS OF 
MATTHEW ARNOLD. 
IraGrssSjfN the early part of the present j^ear, Sir Mountstuart 
“sfi Grant Duff, in a lecture delivered at the Richmond 
Athenaeum on Matthew Arnold, when dwelling upon 
that eminent writer’s careful and conscientious work, 
illustrated his methods by referring to the great accuracy which 
he showed in the references to botany in his poems. After ex- 
plaining that Arnold’s delight in flowers became much increased, 
“ passed from its dormant stage into a very vivid life,” after 
1866, when he was induced to study botany by a friend, the 
lecturer continued: — “ One of the most accurate of our critical 
botanists, himself a poet of no mean rank, and a most careful 
student of poetry,* once wrote to me of Mr. Arnold : — ‘ Of all 
our poets, he does flowers best.’ ” 
This lecture on Matthew Arnold by one who had been his 
very intimate friend, attracted much attention in many quarters. 
The passage quoted above specially struck the writer of the 
following paragraph in the Editorial programme of Nature 
Notes: — “ The Allusions to Birds and Flowers which occur in our 
great poets will be noticed, and a series of articles is planned 
dealing with some of those masters of song who have found their 
highest inspiration in the reverent study of natural beauty, 
‘ knowing that Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.’ ” 
As Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff has been one of the principal 
supporters of the Selborne Society, a suggestion was made to 
him that he might find it possible to give some account of the 
allusions to Nature in Arnold’s poems for insertion in Nature 
* The name of this correspondent is not mentioned in the lecture ; but the 
description given above seems to point to Lord de Tabley, better known perhaps 
as the Hon. J. Leicester Warren. 
