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language, with which it has delighted many closet Naturalists to favour in such liberal profusion each individual in the organic and inorganic world as to render identification sometimes impossible; but knowledge of this kind is not requisite to constitute a Naturalist.

He who notes with intelligence the ever-varying phases of nature is a Naturalist. That title could not have been denied to Thomas Edward, whose charming biography by Smiles you all have, or ought to have read, before he had acquired in the later part of his life the art of classification; and he is not a perfect Naturalist who limits himself to the technical details of the science, but he who extends his observations to the habits, cultivation, use, and relation to the surrounding universe of every object of his scientific pursuit, may rightly claim that title.

I hope it will not be supposed that I depreciate in any way the value of the exact study of the technical details of a science; I merely protest against that view which would limit science to an index: books are comparatively useless without an index, but an index is absolutely so without the contents to which it refers; many scientists never get beyond the index; in fact, they often appear to take pains to avoid giving details of general interest fer fear their writings, by becoming intelligible and popular, should be damaged in their scientific character. Our forefathers did not arrange their plants under a system of classification so perfect us ours; but they knew much more of the plants themselves, and if the eclectic physician in the present day wishes to learn something of their properties, he does not consult a modern treatise but has recourse to a black letter herbal.

Accurate knowledge of technical details is necessary as a foundation for the structure of the larger and move valuable knowledge of nature itself, and the acquisition of that technical knowledge brings with if other rewards; for the menial training, which results from the sustained exercise of the facilities upon a subject which requires so much application and precision, eminently qualifies the student for the business of life.

I hope some of the energies of the Union will be devoted to the repression of those pirates sailing under false colours, soi-disant Naturalists, who, preying on nature, hunt after every rare and beautiful plant, or bird, or animal to destroy it, nominally on the pretence of obtaining specimens, which in many cases are not preserved, and even when preserved are useless for the advancement of science, whose real object is to gratify that passion for destruction unfortunately common to many, ail a morbid craving for notoriety, to which numerous journals pander by publishing the disgraceful fact, as if it were a subject of interest and congratulation for the world to know that a beautiful living object and all its possible offspring had perished for ever; I sincerely hope our "Midland Naturalist" will not soil its pages with any such records. The ultimate destruction of many of the most interesting of our feræ naturæ in a country where population, buildings, and cultivation are rapidly extending, is inevitable, and only a question of time, but sill much may be done to prolong their stay with us, and the Naturalist ought