214 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



and omitting important significant facts. Only the thoroughly 

 instructed student will arrive to that climax of wisdom, where he 

 with the Greek philosopher admits that he knows comparatively 

 nothing, the only true inducement to an irresistible craving for 

 further knowledge. 



Now Botany is not a popular science, though it certainly deserves 

 to be so. Only by the aid of this very interesting branch of Natural 

 History do we learn to know the source of most of our articles of 

 food, the raw materials of most industries, and the remedies for our 

 diseases, &c, &c. ; while a closer study of the details will show us 

 the most wonderful organizations, the most perfect designs, and the 

 most ingenious structures and contrivances, and nowhere, perhaps, 

 is the greatness of creation more apparent and deeper impressed. 

 The first great branch of Botany, is Descriptive Botany, or the 

 knowledge of the exterior features of plants, which is the only 

 branch of Botany that ever can be popular as a study, while 

 the more intricate branches, known as anatomy and physiology, 

 require the aid of the microscope, and a considerable knowledge 

 of natural philosophy and chemistry to enable the student to 

 comprehend their details ; and must therefore necessarily for 

 ever remain the property of a selected few. Descriptive or 

 systematic Botany is doubtless the most important for all practical 

 purposes, and no attempt should be left untried to facilitate 

 the study of this knowledge. Among the numerous attempts 

 which have been made with this object in view, none are more 

 important than the arrangement or grouping of plants in definite 

 orders or families, specified by peculiar features of the plant or parts 

 of the plant. Here we must distinguish between artificial and 

 natural systems, the first relating to a single peculiarity only, the 

 last to the general features of plants. Among artificial systems, 

 the only one which is important and has ever been popular is the 

 Linneean arrangement, in which the classes and orders are defined by 

 the number and character of the sexual organs. It has the great 

 advantage of being easily comprehended, and of being very useful 

 for all practical purposes, but of late its popularity has greatly 

 decreased, because it has the great drawback of leading to a super- 

 fluous knowledge of plants, without furthering science, and easily 

 causing serious mistakes and leading to wrong conclusions. The 

 Natural systems require a great deal more of study, and cannot be 

 mastered without an almost perfect knowledge of Descriptive Botany. 



