Botanists From England

"The ancient and silent language of flowers lends its aid to gratitude, friendship, filial love, and maternal fondness. Even affliction may be soothed by the emblematical communication of sentiment. , when imprisoned by the tyrants of the , amused himself by the study of floral language, his daughter being allowed to send him flowers to the prison. Thence a few days before he met his fate on the scaffold, he sent back to this favorite child, two dried , to express both the purity of his heart, and the fate which awaited him."

"The Chinese hold some particular kinds of flowers in great veneration, especially the , which they call Too Chong Fa: its flowers are deemed grateful to the gods; and, accordingly. at the commencement of the ,when the plant is generally in blossom, large branches with flowers are placed in all the temples as an acceptable new year's offering."

"Ability to recognize and identify the commoner s is of some practical interest and importance. ... a few are injurious or even violently poisonous. Of these last, the scarlet Fly Agaric (') ... with a nearly related species, the Death Cap or Death's Angel fungus (') ... with a pale greenish-yellow , common and abundant species about and trees and in woodlands formed by them, are two of the most notorious. The toadstools of both these species, especially those of the latter, contain virulent poisons and if cooked and eaten in the rest condition, are among the most deadly and dangerous poisons known; the Panther Agaric, ', a toadstool with a brown spotted cap, is also common in such woodlands and also poisonous. It is interesting to note that the fleshy caps of these poisonous toadstools are eaten with impunity by s."

"... the is extremely tolerant of . It can grow quite well with as much as 1.5% of salt in the sand and will tolerate up to 6%. Moreover, it will endure quite prolonged inundation by a high tide."

"Travellers penetrating to the find ' flourishing alone, and spreading its light s in a region of "thick-ribbed ice;" ' was found by on ; and in and Iceland, where there is scarcely light enough for the humblest vegetables to flourish, ' not only endures the sleet and bitter cold, and spreads its blossoms under such inhospitable circumstances, but actually ripens abundance of seed."

"It is tempting to assume that the process of natural selection has brought about a nicety of adjustment between the seed output and mortality, and this presumption is implicit in most of the writings on this topic. If true, it involves as a necessary corollary that the potential of a species is a measure of its susceptibility to natural mortality."

"Mr. Worthington Smith has devoted himself for many years to a study of the localities near London where implements have been found, and has described the various floors with great minuteness, and illustrated them with great artistic skill. In this book he brings all his previous discoveries together, and groups them round his last work at , near , on the borders of and . He has presented to us a monograph on palæolithic camping-places, rather than a general treatise on Man, the Primeval Savage."

"As an important member of the flora of Northern Europe, ' is commonly associated with s of a definite type, especially when it occurs as the dominant or sub-dominant species of moorland associations. As such, it is especially characterists of dry heath soils, deficient in and often ."

"Theophrastus, who wrote about 300 years before Christ, mentions the as the only tree in Greece that produced the blossoms before the leaves. ... The almond-tree was not cultivated in Italy in the time of Cato, who calls the fruit, nucces græcæ, or greek nuts."

"From the woods of north-west America came that familiar evergreen shrub ', which in some gardens to-day is almost a weed; yet such was the enthusiasm with which it was first received that roots commanded a price of ten s each."

"Owing to their lack of and inability to utilize , the stood out as possessing a mode of life fundamentally different from that of green plants. Observations by Pasteur in 1860 and 1862, by in 1879 and 1883, and by in 1883 all showed the former could use a great variety of carbon compounds as food materials."

"Alan Mitchell (1922-1995) became famous in the world of , especially in his native England, as the preeminent tree measurer. He wrote some 9 or 10 tree books, covering identification, history in cultivation, utility to people, and growth. His last, posthumous title cites the abundance, performance, strengths and weaknesses of 163 kinds of trees cultivated in Britain."

"SHINGLE OAK ' South-eastern USA 1786. Infrequent; a few large gardens and collections in all parts."

"WHITE WILLOW ' L. Native all over Britain except in N. W. Scotland, Europe, N. Africa to C. Asia. Common along lowland riversides and valleys; usually less numerous than ."

"In 1994 The Sacred Yew by Anand Chetan and Diana Brueton ... revealed that Alan Mitchell (1992 - 1995 and founder of the of Britain and Ireland), after becoming increasingly interested in potential antiquity himself, (via corresponding with Allen Meredith in the late 1980’s), considered it entirely possible that wild, stunted yew on the storm swept and barren (the westernmost point of the ) could be truly ancient. This was despite their size; with relatively small girths of around 12ft (3.5 m approx.). By 1994 Alan Mitchell had concluded that “There is no theoretical end to this tree, no need for it to die” ..."

"YELLOW WATER-LILY. . This beautiful water plant is familiar to all who have ever enjoyed a season of river life, or even to those who make occasional boating excursions on our rivers. It belongs to the same natural order as its more modestly attired sister the , though of a different genus. "In golden armour glorious to behold," it forms a glorious object on the surface or lake or river, and is seen more frequently seen than the White Water-Lily. The golden blossom of this species has a more powerful and not very refined smell resembling ardent spirits, hence it has the common name of Brandy-Bottle. The Greeks prepare a from the flowers."

"Our old-established {[w|Botanical garden|Botanical Gardens}} have long carefully collected those species that have been used in medicine. The , founded by the in 1632, was the first. In 1690 the were placed by under the charge of the botanist (1642-1706), who sent collectors abroad; and about the same date presents the , afterwards rendered famous by the encyclopedic works of (1691-1771), to the . In 1760 the was established by the , under the advice of (1713-1792). who was an enthusiastic botanist ..."

".—I once saw our almost like a field of gold when the was in full blossom. .—Although it grows so well in England and in some parts of Scotland, it is not so common everywhere, as it is here, Henry. , the great botanist, had never seen it in Sweden, his own country; and when he first saw it here in full golden blossom, he knelt down and thanked God for making anything so beautiful. Then its delicious scent, like pleasant , is very refreshing and nice, is it not? Linnæus is said to have lamented that he could not keep this beautiful plant alive in Sweden, even in a . Severe frosts even in England are apt to kill it. In many places the is used to make fires, and is cut down and kept as fuel, especially to heat bakers' ovens. Cattle also will eat it, and in some parts of Wales it is grown expressly to feed the horses during winter. .—But, Granny, how the thorns must prick the horses' mouths and throats! .—Ah, Alice, the Welsh people are wiser than you think. They cut the gorse when very young, and bruise it in a so as to break all the thorns."

"Ferns may be successfully cultivated either in a , a , or the open air. To accomplish this, and even to bring something of the verdure of a country lane into the close atmosphere of the city, by means of a closed or Wardian case, in which not only ferns but also some other plants will live and thrive, is perfectly easy. , the ingenious inventor, succeeded in cultivating many flowers—such as fairy roses, and even the most luxuriant tropical plants, in them. But it must be remembered that the chief object in these closed cases is to secure a moist atmosphere, and freedom from the all-pervading dirt and dust of cities. To many plants the moisture thus secured is injurious, but to nearly all ferns it is peculiarly grateful, and to them, therefore, especially, this mode of culture is chiefly applicable. In Mr. Ward's own book on the subject, he speaks of what may be done to imitate nature in the growth of ferns; how bits of natural scenery may be artificially built up, with water trickling down from elevated portions of rock, and flowing out of the fern-house in one continuous stream."

"There is, in fact, thirteen times more land north of the than there is to the south of it. This alone must obviously have a profound influence on —the vast ocean area being almost exclusively represented so far as plant life is concerned, by and ; so far few s, such as the Grass-wracks (), inhabiting salt water."

"Wood does not occur in any plants of a lower grade than ferns; and in the higher plants in which it does occur it is chiefly, but not exclusively, in the stem. The main physiological function of wood is the as it grows erect and branches. Submerged s, buoyed up, as they are, by the water, do not form wood in their stems, nor, as a rule, do s, nor, at first, the succulent, flexible shoots of longer-lived plants. In , and in allied plants, the wood, though dense, consists largely of scattered longitudinal strands and often of cells of no great vertical length. Though there are also generally woody layers just below the surface of the stem, giving it considerable strength as a whole, the structure renders s useless as . For all practical purposes, therefore, wood is produced only by the highest sub-kingdom of the plant world, the seed-bearing or flowering plants, the or Phanerogámia of botanists."

"… British s have been the pioneers or among the most active workers in every area of the world important for species. In the second half of the seventeenth century at was inspiring collection in eastern North America by and receiving plants from . From 1827 was sending back the first conifers from western North America, and his collecting was greatly augmented by the Veitchian collectors and those from the Oregon Society from 1853 to 1856. and were sending plants from Japan in 1860 and 1861, Fortune having already sent some from southern China in 1843. and had followed ’s pioneer introduction {') from South America by many more species in 1847 and 1854. From 1899, and were sending a multitude of species from China and later, Formosa. In India, amateur collectors acquired Himalayan species from 1818 onwards."

"The s are stated to have burnt their human sacrifices in cages; and, though we cannot with equal confidence vouch for the antiquity of that other more harmless use of the Willow, the making of s to be wielded at , or on any other English greensward, even if we forget altogether its many uses in manufactures, we can find many points of interest in the Willows group. It may as well, however, be mentioned here that the wood, especially that of the , is made into paper pulp, besides affording the best charcoal for artists' crayons; whilst, not to mention the undoubted value of the bark for purposes, it is now well known in the medical world as the source of ."

"During the last few weeks , , and myself have been exploring an ossiferous at Shandon, near , under a grant from the . Bones of , , bear, wolf, horse, and hare, were found in the débris of a here in 1859, and are now in the . We have worked through a considerable quantity of and , in which and in a thin underlying deposit of cave-earth we have found numerous bones of the above-mentioned animals, indicating at least two individuals of mammoth, eighteen of reindeer, and five of horse, for which latter this is as yet the sole recorded locality in Ireland. The bones of bear show extreme age and signs of disease, and we have found the cast antler of a reindeer. Some of the bones have been gnawed, probably by wolves, and many have been broken by the falling-in of the roof of the cave. Though we have broken into a large chamber, we are as yet unable to form a clear conception of the original form of the cavern. A full account of the cave previous to the present exploration was given by in the ' for June, 1870."

"and factors, though frequently of great importance, are usually indirect in their action, influencing plants by modifying more direct factors. Thus s influence . Local differences of or affect , light, wind and drainage. Associated plants modify light and for each other. , s, etc., exert a far-reaching influence on the chemical and physical characters of the soil, and so on."

"... ' is widely spread over the north temperate and colder regions of the . In Great Britain it is a common plant, being found in the whole of 's 112 counties, ... whilst its altitudinal range is from the coast to some 2,700 above sea-level.... Itself a characteristic plant of the drier parts of marshes and s, ... the habitat of ' is usually where the is considerable rather than excessive. It prefers soils with a high water capacity, such as or . Provided that its needs in respect to soil moisture are satisfied, it will grow almost anywhere: at the edges of marshes and rivers; in the damper parts of meadows; in roadside ditches; on the sea-coast; ... in damp hollows between sand-dunes; ... and even in woods, if the shade is not too dense. ... It readily colonizes moist ground which has been recently disturbed; and hence frequently establishes itself at the foot of railway embankments, &c."

"It has been said, and with more than element of truth, that the least important part of education is the acquisition of knowledge. The facts of nature, as such, have intense fascination for the nature-lover, yet the value of a mere knowledge of facts may easily be over-estimated. Facts are really s, the value of which lies in the uses to which they may be put. Of far deeper importance, therefore, than the mere committing of facts to memory, is the acquisition of correct habits of study. Habits, that is, of patient and accurate observation, and of clear and logical interpretation and correlation of the facts observed. Facts may be forgotten, but habits remain."

"Each has two (sometimes three or more) thin flat ..., at the base of each of which is a swollen part, lined with hairs and containing a single seed. The seed is covered by a thin brown testa. If you scrape away the testa you will find the inside, consisting, as in the , of a , two s, and a very minute plumule. The cotyledons are green and long and narrow, and are coiled into a sort of ball ...; they too contain a store of food."

"Each coming together of man and wife, even if they have been mated for many years, should be a fresh adventure; each winning should necessitate a fresh wooing."

"An impersonal and scientific knowledge of the structure of our bodies is the surest safeguard against prurient curiosity and lascivious gloating."

"Marie Stopes, the great apostle of contraception in interwar Britain, was also—like many among the progressives of the time—a keen eugenicist. In 1935, she attended a Congress for Population Science in Nazi Berlin. In August 1939, she even sent Hitler a volume of her dreadful poems, accompanied by a treacly epistle about love. Yet all this has been forgotten amid continuing progressive admiration for Marie Stopes’s embrace of what are nowadays known as "reproductive rights.""

"Each heart knows instinctively that it is only a mate who can give full comprehension of all the potential greatness in the soul, and have tender laughter for all the childlike wonder that lingers so enchantingly even in the white-haired."

"At sixteen I was vain because someone praised me. My father said: "You can take no credit for beauty at sixteen. If you are beautiful at sixty, it will be your own soul's doing. Then you may be proud of it and be loved for it.""

"In its most beautiful expression and sublimest manifestations, the celibate ideal has proclaimed a world-wide love, in place of the narrower human love of home and children. Many saints and sages, reformers, and dogmatists have modeled their lives on this ideal. But such individuals cannot be taken as the standard of the race, for they are out of its main current: they are branches which may flower, but never fruit in a bodily form."

"The most complete human being is he or she who consciously or unconsciously obeys the profound physical laws of our being in such a way that the spirit receives much help and as little hindrance from the body as possible."

"We are not much in sympathy with the typical hustling American business man, and we have often felt compunction for him, seeing him nervous and harassed, sleeplessly, anxiously hunting dollars, and all but overshadowed by his over-dressed, extravagant and idle wife, who sometimes insists that her spiritual development necessitates that she shall have no children. Such husbands and wives are also found in this country; they are a growing produce of the upper reaches of the capitalist system. Yet such wives imagine that they are upholding women’s emancipation."

"From the body of the loved one's simple, sweetly colored flesh, which our animal instincts urge us to desire, there springs not only the wonder of a new bodily life, but also the enlargement of the horizon of human sympathy and the glow of spiritual understanding which one could never have attained alone."

"Lydick proved that permanent, well-arranged s and crop shelter belts are as much of an asset as barns or plows. They are as essential to agriculture as modern factories are to industry."

"... New Zealand ... transformation of to and ... The student has an opportunity of studying the various stages of , or witnessing a virgin forest turned into a sheep run. Even a neglected farm will provide valuable data and furnish splendid material for studies of great importance and intense scientific interest. It is possible in a day's ride to study the deterioration of land from virgin forest through successive years of farming or grazing to examples of and s."

"He was given this title of "The World's Greatest Conservationist" by ... ..."

"Baker was born in England, educated on the Canadian frontier and at Cambridge, wounded in World War I, and joined the Colonial Service as a forester in Kenya, where he co-founded Men of the Trees (now the ) in 1922 to incite the to reforest their land. He came to appreciate the wisdom of indigenous peoples in protecting the land and forest, and was expelled from the Colonial Service for interposing himself and taking a blow intended for an African."

"... during this expedition I was to trudge through sand wastes which had been my forest haunts when I had been in Africa thirty years ago. Here one could actually see all the process of degradation, from high forest through the stages of orchard-bush and savannah to drifting sand. When the forest is cleared for farming or other reasons, the debris is sooner or later burned up. Here we were standing on land where the which had been accumulated over thousand of years had been destroyed in a single season."

"The experience of the nomadic farmer was that he would find fertile land only in the forest and it was natural for him to make clearings, piling smaller bushes around the greater trees to fell them by burning. The provided rich fertilizer for a season's growth but the land exposed to the elements failed to retain its fertility. So, after reaping a few crops, the nomadic farmer would penetrate ever deeper into the virgin forest ... The next stage in forest degradation is so-called orchard bush, with large trees widely scattered. Then comes a type of fringing forest, which in time will deteriorate into h. After that there is ever sparser vegetation and s, sometimes mobile but more often fixed; then follows the desert floor ..."

"The and Cambridge behind, I enlisted in the in Africa. In November 1920, the call came for me to go to Kenya under the ."

"The good will place es to attract helpful birds, and farmers will do well to plant and protect to provide nesting places for their feathered friends. Birds are great distributors of tree seeds ..."

"Pause in space and go back in time. Explore the genesis of life on this earth and gain a true perspective. A study of the story of the forests of the past is full of romance. How came they into being?"

"Felling big is dangerous work, especially when the tops of the mighty trees are entangled with creepers."

"Through Chief Josiah Njonjo, my righthand man, I called for volunteers, for men who would swear before , the High God, that they would protect the native forest, plant so many native trees each year and take care of trees everywhere. The volunteers were called the Watu wa Miti () ..."

"Hero and herdsman in red earth are one."

"His mind was like a jewel with innumerable facets, all slightly blurred or misted; or perhaps it would be a juster illustration to compare his character to an opal, where all the colours lie perdue, drowned in a milky mystery, and so arranged that to a couple of observers, simultaneously bending over it, the prevalent hue shall in one case seem a pale green, in the other a fiery crimson."