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9.

that is not a thousand times enhanced by possessing this hobby. How much more interesting it is to walk along a road and to be able to identify the different mustards growing along its sides, or later on in the year to distinguish the many species of golden-rods and asters. Or how much more enjoyable it is to stroll through cool woods and try to find how many varieties of violets you can discover - whether you will find three or four or whether you will stretch it to nine or ten. And then when you have become more or less accuntomed to the flora of your part of the country, how eager you are, when striking some new corner of the world, to go right out and look around. Consider how much more an Easterner with a hobby like this gets out of a trip to a southern or a western city than does an ordinary man who is not of this kind. The latter finds no great contrast to appeal to him: the general atmosphere is much like that of his home town; the theater is the same, the movies are the same, the cabaret is not materially different, southern and western booze will not exhilerate any more than that of the East, the buildings and city pavements are more or less similar, the people are not radically altered. Scenery lone may be much different but one good view and you have taken it all in.

Not so with the naturalist. He need only wander into a vacant lot in a distant city and come forth with a dozen species of plants brand-new to him. A stay of five or six weeks will easily net him 500 new plants. And then to identify them - an interesting work in itself.

To one who has no hobby the thrill of a collector means nothing.