BOOK XVI 



CLASSIFICATORY SCIENCES. 



BOTANY. 



FOR the purpose of giving to my reader some indication of the pre- 

 sent tendency of Botanical Science, I conceive that I cannot do 

 better than direct his attention to the reflections, procedure, and rea- 

 sonings which have been suggested by the most recent extensions of 

 man's knowledge of the vegetable world. And as a specimen of these, I 

 may take the labors of Dr. Joseph Hooker, on the Flora of the Antarctic 

 Regions, 1 and especially of New Zealand. Dr. Hooker was the Botanist 

 to an expedition commanded by Sir James Ross, sent out mainly for the 

 purpose of investigating the phenomena of Terrestrial Magnetism near 

 the South Pole ; but directed also to the improvement of Natural His- 

 tory. The extension of botanical descriptions and classifications to a 

 large mass of new objects necessarily suggests wider views of the value 

 of classes (genera, species, &c.,) and the conclusions to be drawn from 

 their constancy or inconstancy. A few of Dr. Hooker's remarks may 

 show the nature of the views taken under such circumstances. 



I may notice, in the first place, (since this work is intended for gene- 

 ral rather than for scientific readers,) Dr. Hooker's testimony to the 

 value of a technical descriptive language for a classificatory science 

 a Terminology, as it is called. He says, "It is impossible to write Bo- 

 tanical descriptions which a person ignorant of Botany can understand, 

 although it is supposed by many unacquainted with science that this 

 can and should be done." And hence, he says, the state of botanical 

 science demands Latin descriptions of the plants ; and this is a lesson 

 which he especially urges upon the Colonists who study the indigenous 

 plants. 



1 The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H. M. Discovery Ships Erebus and 

 Terror, in the years 1839-40. Published 1847. flora NOVCB Zdandice. 1853. 



