Tag: natural world

  • Where it all started: Alfred Russel Wallace in Cwm Nedd

    Where it all started: Alfred Russel Wallace in Cwm Nedd

    On Sundays I would stroll in the fields and woods, learning the various parts and organs of any flowers I could gather, and then trying how many of them belonged to any of the orders described in my book.  Great was my delight when I found that I could identify a Crucifer, an Umbellifer, and…

  • Orwell’s toads

    Orwell’s toads

    On 12 April 1946 the magazine Tribune published a short piece by George Orwell entitled Some thoughts on the common toad.  It’s not perhaps his most original essay – its central theme is the coming of spring, and how ubiquitous it is, even in the centre of a large city like London – but it…