Ray Society. In reply I am desired by the Council to express their thanks for the opportunity of inspecting these most careful illustrations."

Besides these written expressions of approval, I may add when Mr. Stacy Marks saw Miss Murray's paintings he declared that for fidelity to Nature and accuracy, they might be compared to those of Albert Dürer. Personally, I wish that I could persuade the public that such faithful work as this and much that is to be found in the Arts and Crafts Exhibitions, and amongst the so-called "sketches" by young artists, made from the love of painting, is worth buying and that the same amount of money spent in the purchase of gaudy daubs produced by people whose attainments are on the level of those of the pavement artist in chalks-is absolutely frittered away njuriously.

If there were no market for daubs, the daubers would be forced to obtain subsistence by honest work and the skilled artists would have a better reward for their painful labour and the public would gain by an investment in works of art, although they may be only fans and screens, rather than lose by the possession of trash.

Furzebank, Torquay.

GEORGE A. MUSGRAVE.

THE PLANT ALLUSIONS IN THE POEMS OF ROBERT HERRICK.

HUMBLE lover of Nature and an earnest Selbornian, I have found much pleasure and profit in reading the admirable essay by Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff, which has lately appeared in the pages of NATURE NOTES, upon the allusions to plants which occur in the poems of Matthew Arnold. I think it will be found that the writings of Robert Herrick are fuller of references to plants, and especially to flowers, than are those of any other English poet. May I be allowed to draw the attention of my fellow Selbornians to some of the beautiful passages in which these references occur? Herrick belonged to a Leicestershire family, and he was born in the year 1591. He graduated in arts at Cambridge, and in the year 1629 he took holy orders in the Church of England, and was appointed soon afterwards to the vicariate of Dean Prior, a quiet little rural village on the borders of Dartmoor, in what he called "his dull Devonshire." Herrick, when he was fifty-six years old, in the year 1647, when the unfortunate King Charles and his cavaliers were defending the royal crown of England against the pikes of the Puritans, printed in London the first of the two sections of his poems, made up of his "pious pieces," under the title of "Noble Numbers." In the

ROBERT HERRICK'S PLANT ALLUSIONS. 123

next year following, his larger collection, the secular division of his writings, was printed. In honour of the west country in which the verses were written, in his Devonshire vicarage, the whole collection was entitled " Hesperides; or Works both Human and Divine." Professor Henry Morley, from whose admirable edition of Herrick's poems I propose to make a few quotations, calls Herrick "one of Nature's poets," and says, very truly," the love of flowers runs through all his verse." In the poetical introduction of his book Herrick himself says:— "I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers."

And again :

"I write

How roses first came red, and lilies white."

Herrick's collection of poems is made up of a very large number of short lyrical pieces, full of melody, in which he tries. nearly every cast of rhyme and metre. Many of his songs are love songs, written in honour of his ideal Julia, and in these pretty ditties are to be found many beautiful references to flowers. The serious object of his book seems to be to set forth in verse every mood, passion, and moral experience of human life, and to blend into the whole the teachings of his Christian faith, his love of Nature, and his loyalty to his unhappy king. His references to flowers are not made in the scientific spirit of the naturalist, but rather with the lofty sensuousness of the poet, who sees in the beauties of bud and blossom, in their colours, scents, and forms, the types and illustrations of all else in the world that is pure, and fair, and lovely. Upon his Julia's recovery from sickness he writes :—

"Droop, droop no more, or hang the head,

Ye roses almost withered;

New strength and newer purple get,

Each here declining violet.

O primroses! let this day be

A resurrection unto ye;

And to all flowers allied in blood,

Or sworn to that sweet sisterhood,

For health on Julia's cheek"

Then he dreams of a parliament of roses, when

In his sadder moods Herrick wrote of his death, and of what men would think of him when he had passed away. He chose a laurel tree to mark his grave:—

"A funeral stone or verse, I covet none :

But only crave of you that I may have

A sacred laurel springing from my grave."

In one of his longer poems, dedicated to his brother, Her

rick gives some charming pictures of the joys of a country life. He describes the "damasked meadows" and tells us how

"The purling springs, groves, birds, and well-weaved bowers,

With fields enamelled with flowers,

Present their shapes."

Herrick had some fanciful and curious conceits about flowers. He sings a plaintive melody of an unlucky girl who was turned into a wall-flower. He jokes rather sadly about "divination by a daffodil," thus:

"When a daffodil I see

Hanging down his head towards me,
Guess may what I must be ;

First, I shall decline my head ;
Secondly, I shall be dead;
Lastly, safely buried."

Then we have some more pleasing verses in the same quaint strain, telling "how lilies came white,' ""how violets came blue,” "how roses came red," and "how marigolds came yellow." As I turn over the leaves of Herrick's delightful book, I find there is scarcely a page which does not speak of flowers. Some of these references I must leave for others to find. Herrick's gentle lyrics, now two centuries and a half old, will be remembered when newer rhymes are forgotten, and they will live not alone by their own bright charms, but also because the beautiful objects of nature upon which they rest abide with us always. One of his sweet old songs Cherry Ripe," has long fixed his fame wherever joy can spring to speech in English words.

66

JAMES SAWYER.

THE FUTURE OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN AT

CHELSEA.

HE hand of Time has wrought many changes on the banks of the Thames in and about London. Docks, quays and warehouses have succeeded the thickets and reed beds of centuries ago, and now, more happily, where twenty years since only reaches of mud at low tide and slimy walls met the eye of the passenger by boat up the river, there may be seen spacious embankments planted with avenues of lime and sycamore. But although these embankments have been the means of abolishing much that was unlovely, in one instance at least they have helped to efface and obscure from view an old landmark on the river bank which forms the subject of this note.

Once a conspicuous object to those passing up and down the Thames, the old Botanic Garden of Chelsea is now hidden from view by the flourishing avenue of sycamores on the embank

FUTURE OF CHELSEA BOTANIC GARDEN. 125;

ment.* It is hemmed in on one side by lofty red-bricked mansions, and on the other by humbler, yet densely-packed tenements. The trees, too, hide the ancient cedar, survivor of its fellow blown down in 1845, and "the embankment has robbed the garden of the water-stairs given by Sir Hans Sloane."

Like the parterre of a deserted mansion, sequestered and barred to the public, no wonder such a spot, lonely amidst the turmoil of London, is forgotten, and to all but the surrounding inhabitants, almost unknown. Yet in former days, before the foundation of the more celebrated garden at Kew, it must have been a notable place, for "Evelyn used to walk in the Apothecaries' Garden and admire 'besides many rare annuals, the treebearing Jesuit's bark which has done such wonders in quartan ague.'

Quite lately some degree of public interest has been aroused in this long-forgotten spot. The ever restless sea of bricks and mortar now seeks to inundate this island of green, and ere long the builder hopes to be making havoc of its shady walks and flower-beds. Not many weeks ago a meeting was held at the Chelsea Town Hall, under the presidency of Lord Meath, to protest against the sale of the garden by the Apothecaries' Company, and a resolution, modified into a declaration, was passed, that an effort should be made to preserve it as an open space. Now better far than that the garden should pass into the hands of the builders, would be that it were kept as an open space; but, we would add, not exactly in the sense of the other numerous, though not too numerous, recreation grounds of the metropolis. If secured to the use of the public for ever, it is difficult to see why it should not, all the same, be devoted to the use for which it was designed by its founder, namely, for the study of botany as a means of learning the medicinal and noxious properties of plants; of promoting healthy relaxation to those engaged in manual or sedentary employment, and of teaching observant habits of mind. With the sole exception of medicine, more especially in its clinical aspect, no science is easier to be demonstrated, and learnt by demonstration, than is botany. It was his never being content with mere book-learning, but believing that botany could only be grasped as a science by actual field observation that gave the late Professor Henslow such success with his pupils at Cambridge, and with those in his village school.

If such an object as now suggested, were attained, no doubt there would be found plenty of botanists, whose knowledge and position would enable them to do so, ready and willing to give lectures and demonstrations on summer evenings and at other times in the garden.

* This is the only old Botanical Garden in London left, "Gerard's at Holborn and Tradescant's at Lambeth having perished." (Hare's "Walks about London.")

It would be idle to suppose that such a garden could in any sense become a rival to that of Kew, but everyone in London who has a desire to learn structural botany, by observation of plants while in a growing state, has by no means the time and money to be frequently going to Kew, much less into the open country, receding as the latter does, further and further from the metropolis every year. The principle of localisation, as opposed to centralisation, is now happily becoming a leading feature in politics, as we see in the establishment of County Councils; also in education, as the University Extension Scheme has most successfully shown. Could not the same principle be applied with regard to the study of botany? If this garden were to be kept up for the purpose originally intended, doubtless other gardens would be employed for the same useful purpose. The Botanic Gardens of Regent's Park, of Kensington, and of Battersea Park (the latter exactly opposite the Chelsea Garden), would then become centres of botanical learning, and form valuable auxiliaries to Kew.

To some who might be inclined to suggest the difficulty of getting the various kinds of wild plants to flourish, it may be answered that it is astonishing to see the number of our wild flowers and field plants that do grow and luxuriate in the naturalized parts of the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park, such as the large aviaries formed of recent years.

Lastly, although in the winter months, when of necessity it could not be used much for the purpose here advocated, the garden might be employed more generally as a recreation ground; in the spring and summer months there would not be the same need, owing to the Embankment with its leafy avenue being close at hand, also the far larger expanses of Battersea Park, easily accessible on the other side of the water. If only secured, and the writer trusts he is echoing the wish of every member of the Selborne Society that it may be so, let the garden be kept as near as possible to the original purposes of its donor-" for the manifestation of the power and wisdom and goodness of GOD in creation, and that the apprentices might learn to distinguish good and useful plants from hurtful ones."

ARCHIBALD L. CLARKE.

SOME BOOKS FOR HOLIDAY-MAKERS. AMONG the thousands of readers of NATURE NOTES, many are doubtless already on their travels for the annual vacation; others are preparing for flitting, or engaged in the selection of a route. It is, therefore, an opportune moment to call attention to a number of guide-books, which have been sent to us by different publishers. Of these the most important is Ireland, by H. J. B. Baddeley and C. S. Ward, in the admirable and well-known "Thorough Guide Series," published by Dulau and Co., Soho Square. Ireland as a resort for tourists has been well