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THE CALL OF THE WILDFLOWER
THE CALL OF THE WILDFLOWER
THE FLOGGING CRAZE. A Statement of the Case against Corporal Punishment. With Foreword by Sir George Greenwood. 3s. 6d. net. George Allen & Unwin Ltd. ON CAMBRIAN AND CUMBRIAN HILLS.p Pilgrimages to Snowdon and Scafell. Revised Edition. 5s. net. C. W. Daniel Ltd. ANIMALS' RIGHTS: Considered in relation to Social Progress. Revised Edition. 2s. 6d. DE QUINCEY. Great Writers Series. 1s. 6d. net. G. Bell & Sons Ltd. Walter Scott Publishing Co. RICHARD JEFFERIES: His Life and his Idea
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HENRY S. SALT
HENRY S. SALT
LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD RUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C. First published in 1922 ( All rights reserved )...
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NOTE
NOTE
I am indebted to the courtesy of the editors of the Daily News , Pall Mall Gazette , Liverpool Daily Post , and Sussex Daily News , for permission to reprint in this book the substance of articles that first appeared in their columns. My obligation to Jack London, in regard to the choice of a title, will be apparent....
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I THE CALL OF THE WILDFLOWER
I THE CALL OF THE WILDFLOWER
Tantus amor florum. Virgil. The "call of the wild," where the love of flowers is concerned, has an attraction which is not the less powerful because it is difficult to explain. The charm of the garden may be strong, but it is not so strong as that which draws us to seek for wildflowers in their native haunts, whether of shore or water-meadow, field or wood, moorland or mountain. A garden is but a "zoo" (with the cruelty omitted); and just as the true natural history is that which sends us to stu
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ON SUSSEX SHINGLES
ON SUSSEX SHINGLES
Salt and splendid from the circling brine. Swinburne. Where should a flower-lover begin his story if not from the sea shore? Earth has been poetically described as "daughter of ocean"; and the proximity of the sea has a most genial and stimulating effect upon its grandchildren the flowers, not those only that are peculiar to the beach, but also the inland kinds. There is no "dead sea" lack of vegetation on our coasts, but a marked increase both in the luxuriance of plants and in their beauty. Su
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III
III
On either side Is level fen, a prospect wild and wide. Crabbe. " Levels ," or "brooks," is the name commonly given in Sussex to a number of grassy tracts, often of wide extent, which, though still in a state of semi-wildness, have been so far reclaimed from primitive fens as to afford a rough pasturage for horses and herds of cattle, the ground being drained and intersected by dikes and sluggish streams. In these spacious and unfrequented flats wildfowl of various kinds are often to be seen; her
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LIKENESSES THAT BAFFLE
LIKENESSES THAT BAFFLE
Stay, stand apart; I know not which is which. The Comedy of Errors. One of the first difficulties by which those who would learn their native flora are beset is the likeness which in some cases exists between one plant and another—not the close resemblance of kindred species, such as that found, for instance, among the brambles or the hawkweeds, which is necessarily a matter for expert discrimination, but the superficial yet often puzzling similarity in what botanists call the "habit" of wildflo
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BOTANESQUE
BOTANESQUE
What is it? a learned man Could give it a clumsy name. Let him name it who can, The beauty would be the same. Tennyson. Among the difficulties that waylay the beginner must be reckoned the botanical phraseology. We have heard of "the language of flowers," and of its romantic associations; but the language of botany is another matter, and though less picturesque is equally cryptic and not to be mastered without study. When, for example, we read of a certain umbelliferous plant that its "cremocarp
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THE OPEN DOWNLAND
THE OPEN DOWNLAND
Open hither, open hence, Scarce a bramble weaves a fence. Meredith. When speaking of some Sussex water-meadows, I mentioned as one of their many delights the views which they offer of the never distant Downs. The charm of these chalk hills is to me only inferior to that of real mountains; there are times, indeed, when with clouds resting on the summits, or drifting slowly along the coombes, one could almost imagine himself to be in the true mountain presence. I have watched, on an autumn day, a
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PRISONERS OF THE PARTERRE
PRISONERS OF THE PARTERRE
Prim little scholars are the flowers of her garden, Trained to stand in rows, and asking if they please. I might love them well but for loving more the wild ones: O my wild ones! they tell me more than these. Meredith. The domestication of plants, as of animals, is a concern of such practical importance that in most minds it quite transcends whatever interest may be felt in the beauty of wildflowers. But the many delights of the garden ought not to blind us to the fact that there is in the wild
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PICKING AND STEALING
PICKING AND STEALING
Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies. Tennyson . There is, as I have said, a positive contempt in many minds for the wildflower; that is, for the flower which is regarded as being no one's "property." But the flora of a country, rightly considered, is very far from being unowned; it is the property of the people, and when any species is diminished or extirpated the loss is not private but national. We have already reached a time, as many botanists think, when the choicer
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ROUND A SURREY CHALK-PIT
ROUND A SURREY CHALK-PIT
I found a deep hollow on the side of a great hill, a green concave, where I could rest and think in perfect quiet. Richard Jefferies. As a range of hills, the North Downs are inferior to those of Sussex in beauty and general interest. Their outline suggests no "greyhound backs" coursing along the horizon; nor have they that "living garment" of turf, woven by centuries of pasturing, which Hudson has matchlessly described. Their northern side is but a gradual slope leading up to a bleak tableland;
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A SANDY COMMON
A SANDY COMMON
The common, overgrown with fern, . . . Yields no unpleasing ramble; there the turf Smells fresh, and rich in odoriferous herbs And fungus fruits of earth, regales the sense With luxury of unexpected sweets. Cowper. Stretched between the North Downs and the weald, through the west part of Kent and the length of Surrey, runs the parallel range of greensand, which in a few places, as at Toys Hill and Leith Hill, equals or overtops its rival, but is elsewhere content to keep a lower level, as a regi
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QUAINTNESS IN FLOWERS
QUAINTNESS IN FLOWERS
Throw hither all your quaint enamell'd eyes. Milton. I spoke just now of a love of the quaint. Quaintness, though it may exist apart from beauty, is often associated with it, and, unlike grotesqueness, has a pleasurable interest for the spectator. In flowers it is usually suggested by some abnormality of shape, as in the snapdragon; less frequently, as in the fritillary, by a singular effect of colouring. Perhaps it is to the orchis group that one would most confidently apply the word; for they
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HERTFORDSHIRE CORNFIELDS
HERTFORDSHIRE CORNFIELDS
A gaily chequered, heart-expanding view, Far as the circling eye can shoot around, Unbounded tossing in a flood of corn. Thomson. That part of Hertfordshire where the Chiltern Hills, after curving proudly round from Tring to Dunstable, and almost rivalling the South Downs in shapeliness, die away at their north-east extremity, over Hitchin, to a bare expanse of ploughland, has the aspect of a broad plain swept by all winds of heaven, but is found, when explored, to be by no means devoid of charm
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THE SOWER OF TARES
THE SOWER OF TARES
An enemy hath done this. The sowing of wildflowers is deprecated by some botanists, presumably as an interference with natural processes, an unauthorized attempt to play Providence in the vegetable kingdom; but the subject is one that seems to call for fuller discussion than it usually receives. We are told in the parable that the man who sowed tares among the wheat was an enemy; and certainly if there was an intention to injure the crop the expression was not too strong. But I have sometimes wo
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DALES OF DERBYSHIRE
DALES OF DERBYSHIRE
Deeper and narrower grew the dell; It seemed some mountain, rent and riven, A channel for the stream had given, So high the cliffs of limestone gray Hung beetling o'er the torrent's way. Scott. The limestone Dales of Derbyshire are narrow and deep, and their streams, when visible (for they often lurk underground), are swift, strong, and of crystal clearness. The sides of the glens are in some places precipitous with bluffs and pinnacles of grey rock; in others, ridged and streaked with terraces
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NO THOROUGHFARE!
NO THOROUGHFARE!
Trespassers will be prosecuted. The subject of trespassing mentioned in the preceding chapter, has a very close and personal interest for the adventurous flower-lover; for of all incentives to ignore the familiar notice-board with its hackneyed words of warning, none perhaps is more potent than the possibility that some rare and long-sought wildflower is to be found on the forbidden land. The appeal is one that no explorer can resist. If "stout Cortez" himself, when with eagle eyes he stared at
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PRESERVED.
PRESERVED.
A Poet through a haunted wood Roamed fearless and serene, Nor flinched when on his path there stood A Form in Velveteen. "Gaunt Shape, come you alive or dead, My footsteps shall not swerve." "You're trespassing," the Vision said: "This place is a preserve." "How so? Is some dark secret here Preserved? some tale of shame?" The Spectre scowled, but answered clear: "What we preserve is Game." Yet still the Poet's heart was nerved With Phantoms to dispute: "Then tell me, why is Game preserved?" The
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LIMESTONE COASTS AND CLIFFS
LIMESTONE COASTS AND CLIFFS
Where the most beautiful wildflowers grow, there man's spirit is fed.— Thoreau . A limestone soil is everywhere rich in flowers—we have seen what the midland dales can produce—but it is especially so in the close neighbourhood of the sea. Two instances suggest themselves; one from a Carnarvonshire promontory, the Orme's Head; the other from Arnside Knott, in Westmorland. Fifty years ago the Great Orme was a wild and picturesque headland, girdled by a footpath which made a circuit of the beetling
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ON PILGRIMAGE TO INGLEBOROUGH
ON PILGRIMAGE TO INGLEBOROUGH
It [rose-root] groweth very plentifully in the north of England, especially in a place called Ingleborough Fels. Gerarde. There is a tale by Herman Melville which deals with the strangeness of a first meeting between the inmates of two houses which face each other, far and high away, on opposite mountain ranges, and yet, though daily visible, have remained for years as mutually unknown as if they belonged to different worlds. It was with this story in my mind that I approached for the first time
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A BOTANOPHILIST'S JOURNAL
A BOTANOPHILIST'S JOURNAL
He was the attorney of the indigenous plants, and owned to a preference of the weeds to the imported plants, as of the Indian to the civilized man.— Emerson . I have referred several times to Henry Thoreau, of Concord, in whose Journal a great deal is said about wildflowers; and as the volumes are not easily accessible to English readers it may be worth while to select therefrom a few of the more interesting passages. In all that he wrote on the subject Thoreau appears less as the botanist than
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FELONS AND OUTLAWS
FELONS AND OUTLAWS
The poisoning henbane, and the mandrake dread. Drayton. That there are felonious as well as philanthropic flowers, plants that are actively malignant in their relation to mankind, has always been a popular belief. The upas-tree, for example, has given rise to many gruesome stories; and the mandrake, fabled to shriek when torn from the ground, has played a frequent part in poetry and legend; not to mention the host of noxious weeds, the "plants at whose names the verse feels loath," as Shelley ha
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SOME MARSH-DWELLERS
SOME MARSH-DWELLERS
Here are cool mosses deep. Tennyson. What Thoreau wrote of his Massachusetts swamps is hardly less true of ours; a marsh is everywhere a great allurement for botanists. By a road which crosses a certain Sussex Common there is a church, and close behind the church a narrow swampy piece of ground known as "the great bog," which has all the appearance of being waste and valueless; yet whenever I visit the place I think of Thoreau's words: " My temple is the swamp." For that bog, ignored or despised
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A NORTHERN MOOR
A NORTHERN MOOR
Where Tees in tumult leaves his source, Thundering o'er Caldron and High Force. Scott. A first glance at the bleak and inhospitable moorland of Upper Teesdale would not lead one to suppose that it is famous for its flora. No more desolate-looking upland could be imagined; the great wolds stretch away monotonously, broken only by a few scars that overhang the course of the stream, and devoid of the grandeur that is associated with mountain scenery. No houses are visible, except a few white homest
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APRIL IN SNOWDONIA
APRIL IN SNOWDONIA
It is Easter Sunday . . . the hills are high, and stretch away to heaven.— De Quincey . So wrote De Quincey in one of his finest dream-fugues. There seems, in truth, to be a certain fitness in the turning of men's thoughts at the spring season to the heights of the mountains, where, as nowhere else, the cares and ailments of the winter time are forgotten; and it is a noticeable fact that these upland districts are now as thronged with visitors during Easter week as in August itself. As I write,
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FLOWER-GAZING IN EXCELSIS
FLOWER-GAZING IN EXCELSIS
I gazed, and gazed, but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought. Wordsworth. There is no more inspiring pastime than flower-gazing under the high crags of Snowdon. The love of flowers reveals a new and delightful aspect of the mountain life, and leads its votaries into steeps and wilds which, as they lie aloof from the usual ways of the climber, might otherwise escape notice. It must be owned that our Cumbrian and Cambrian hills are not rich in flowers as Switzerland is rich; one c
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COVES OF HELVELLYN
COVES OF HELVELLYN
I climbed the dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn. Scott. So far I have spoken more of the Welsh mountain flowers than of those belonging to Lakeland; but the difference between the two districts, in regard to their respective floras, is not very great, and with a few exceptions the plants that are native on the one range may be looked for on the other. The Lloydia is found in Snowdonia only; and Wales can boast, not a monopoly, but a greater plenty of the moss-campion and the purple saxifrage. On
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GREAT DAYS
GREAT DAYS
I hearing get, who had but ears, And sight, who had but eyes before; I moments live, who lived but years. Thoreau. In flower-seeking, as in other sports and sciences, the unexpected is always happening; there are rich days and poor days, surprises and disappointments; the plant which we hailed as a rarity may prove on examination to be but a gay deceiver; and contrariwise, when we think we have come home empty-handed, it may turn out that the vasculum contains some unrecognized treasure; as when
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THE LAST ROSE
THE LAST ROSE
And summer's lease hath all too short a date. The great days were not born to be forgotten. It is well that memory should come to the aid of the flower-lover; for none is more deserving of such comfort than he, keeping constant watch as he does over the transitoriness of the seasons, and having prescience of the summer's departure while summer is still at its height. Sometimes a late autumnal thought Has crossed my mind in green July. It is in the prime of the year that such intimations of morta
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