"'WILD FLOWERS.
"'By Nicol Macmullen.
"'The vegetable kingdom is a very large one. John Ray, a native of
Sussex, did much to advance the study of it. He was born in 1628, and
died in 1705. There was a history of plants written three hundred years
before Christ. Linnaeus was the man who invented the sexual system--a
very useful invention. It is a stepping-stone. He first mentioned it
in 1736. Seaweeds are also a part of the vegetable kingdom, but they
have no flowers, and so may be dismissed without further mention. Also
Algae. Of leaves, it may be said that some fall and some do not. At
least, speaking strictly, all fall, and this is called a deciduous tree;
but not all at once, and this is called an evergreen. Glands occur in
the tissue of the leaves, and they also have hairs. Buds also have
hairs. The organs of plants is almost the largest subject in the
vegetable kingdom, but I have no time to mention more than one or two
organs to-day. The root descends into the soil, the stems rise aloft,
and the flowers bud out at the ends of them. Mistletoe and broom-rape
are called parasites, because they live on other trees, instead of being
on their own.
"'Coming now to flowers, we find that they may be divided into two main
families: wild and garden. We shall dismiss garden flowers, as they do
not belong to our subject, but wild flowers are the most beautiful
things in the vegetable kingdom. Especially honeysuckle and
blackberries. Many others will occur to the reader also. The flower is
the _tout ensemble_ of those organs which are concerned in
reproduction.'"
The Doctor stopped and put down Macmullen's essay. For my part, I was
simply amazed at the amount Mac. knew, and I think everybody else was;
but, strangely enough, the Doctor didn't like it.
"From this point our author quotes verbatim out of the pages of the
_Encyclopaedia Britannica_," continued Dr. Dunstan. "As an effort of
memory the result is highly creditable, and Macmullen will have acquired
a great deal of botanical knowledge which may possibly be of service to
him in his future career; but as an essayist on wild flowers he is
exceedingly evasive, and his effort fails radically and fundamentally.
The subject is obviously not one that appeals to him. There is no
sympathy, no love of his theme; above all, no moral deductions.
Macmullen's mind has not been uplifted. He has, in fact, failed."
Mac. didn't seem to care as much as you would have thought. He told me
afterwards he felt so thankful when the Doctor shut up about him and
turned to Tomkins, that he forgot everything else but relief.
Tomkins became red when the Doctor picked up his essay; but it soon
faded away--I mean the redness.
"Now here," said Dr. Dunstan, "we are met by an attempt of a very
different character. The boy Tomkins appears to think that there is
nothing more to be said about the flowers of the field than to utter
their names. His prose lacks dignity; there is a feverish desire to
tell us what everything is called. There is no poetry, no feeling.
Vagueness, indeed, we have, but vagueness is not poetry, though to
uncritical minds it may sometimes pass for such. This is how Tomkins
approaches his subject. There is a breathlessness, a feeling of haste,
as if somebody was chasing Tomkins along the road while he was making
his researches. This, unless Tomkins has been guilty of trespass--an
alternative I refuse to consider--is difficult to explain."