144 
A SCIENTIFIC APPRECIATION [ch. vi. 
of grass that springs from between the stones of 
the pavement, not less than in the knotted oak or 
the graceful palm—in the small cube of salt, not 
less than in the granitic mountain or the volcanic 
cone—there is something of a mysterious nature, 
the comprehension of which would be a much more 
glorious achievement than any that the human 
intellect has yet performed.” 1 
And again:— 
“ The world is full of wonders. ... In every 
corner, as well as in every open place, you meet 
with something not understood.” 
On leaping a wall he came suddenly upon a 
fungus:— 
“ There it stood, not at all courting observation, 
on a tuft of green hypnum, beside a pine-trunk— 
its broad pileus, six inches in diameter, glowing with 
tints nowhere else to be seen in Nature—carmine in 
the centre, shaded into orange-scarlet, the margin 
buff. Some pale warty scurf, the remains of the 
volva, still adhered to it, but did not mar its beauty. 
Its stalk, eight inches high, and nearly an inch thick, 
stood erect upon its bulb. From its upper part 
hung all round a delicate sheath, of a pale-yellow 
tint, so tender that you might blow it into shreds 
with a breath. Its beautiful yellowish-white 
lamellae could be seen only after it was pulled. A 
snail had eaten a large hole into its stem. Was it 
formed to be devoured by mollusca ? What are its 
uses 1 Why was it placed here ? (.Natural History 
of Deeside, p. 263.) 
As an illustration of simple and unaffected, but 
very vivid description, we may take part of his 
sketch of the squirrel:— 
1 Lives of Eminent Zoologists , p. 18. 
