Henry S Salt

The Call of the Wildflower Henry S Salt

That the lovers of wildflowers-those, at least, who can give active expression to their love-are not a numerous folk, is perhaps not surprising; for even a moderate knowledge of the subject demands such favourable conditions as free access to nature, with opportunities for observation beyond what most persons command; but what they lack in numbers they make up in zeal, and to none is the approach of spring more welcome than to those who are then on the watch for the reappearance of floral friends. For it is as friends, not garden captives or herbarium specimens, that the flower-lover desires to be acquainted with flowers. It is not their uses that attract him; that is the business of the herbalist. Nor is it their structure and analysis; the botanist will see to that. What he craves is a knowledge of the loveliness, the actual life and character of plants in their relation to man-what may be called the spiritual aspect of flowers-and this is seen and felt much more closely when they are sought in their free wild state than when they are cultivated on rockery or in parterre. The reality of this love of wildflowers is evident, but its cause and meaning are less easy to discern.