XVII. ON PILGRIMAGE TO INGLEBOROUGH 128 XVIII. A BOTANOPHILIST'S JOURNAL 133 XIX. FELONS AND OUTLAWS 139 XX. SOME MARSH-DWELLERS 144 XXI. A NORTHERN MOOR 151 XXII. APRIL IN SNOWDONIA 158 XXIII. FLOWER-GAZING _IN EXCELSIS_ 164 XXIV. COVES OF HELVELLYN 171 XXV. GREAT DAYS 178 XXVI. THE LAST ROSE 185 INDEX 191 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 study animals in the wilds, not to coop them in cages, so the true botany must bring man to the flower, not the flower to man. 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.