122 Bibliographical Notices. 



of the study of botany as a training science, he proceeds to point out 

 the value of its facts to various classes. To the medical man and the 

 agriculturist they are essential. We recommend the following to 

 our readers : — 



" The utility of a study of botany to the zoologist and geologist cannot be 

 too highly estimated. The perfection to which the labours of Linnaeus, De- 

 Jussieu, DeCandolle and their numerous co-labourers and pupils have 

 brought systematic botany, furnishes the zoologist with a sound model on 

 which to mould the descriptive part of his science, but one with which he is 

 usually I fear too slightly acquainted to make good use of. Zoology has 

 yet to attain the precision to which botany so rapidly advanced through the 

 logical acuteness of the great minds who embraced the study, — a precision 

 greatly forwarded by the general knowledge of their subject which they con- 

 sidered it their duty to acquire before they engaged in original special re- 

 search. The perfection to which botanical diagnosis has attained is truly 

 astonishing. More than 50,000 species of known plants are distinguished 

 from each other by short summaries of their essential characters, sometimes 

 occupying but a few words, and at most but a few lines. Yet there is no 

 confusion. The printed diagnosis is sufficiently precise to enable the stu- 

 dent to ascertain the name and affinities of any plant he may gather even 

 without the help of figures or other artificial aid. That zoological science may 

 attain an equal degree of precision, no thinking naturalist can for a moment 

 doubt; but until more zoologists than now do, study the principles by which 

 such precision has been attained, their science must rest in the unsatisfactory 

 state which deforms great portions of it at present. 



" The importance of a knowledge of botanical science to the geologist 

 rests on different grounds. Perhaps to him its greatest value may lie in 

 conferring that training which I have advocated in commenting on the bo- 

 tanical studies of the physician. But it is also of the greatest use in enabling 

 him to understand the nature and relations of the numerous fossil remains 

 of vegetables imbedded in the earth's strata, and the examination of which 

 affords such important data for determining the relative ages of formations, 

 and the conditions under which they were formed. When we recollect that 

 the great beds of coal, which furnish such a valuable item in tlie list of our 

 economical comforts, have been derived from the destruction of ancient 

 herbs and trees, we must view with astonishment the important part played 

 by the vegetable kingdom in contributing to the substance of the earth's 

 crust." 



At a time when our manuals, local floras, and guide-books have 

 rejected the Linnsean system, many of our older friends who have 

 had no other guide to the mysteries of classification, and have been 

 surprised to see it so suddenly and generally supplanted, will read 

 with interest the following testimony in its favour : — 



" Those who slightingly think of theLinnaean system, as it is termed, forget 

 in the present to look back fully and fairly on the past. They should re- 

 mind themselves of the state in which botany was when Linnaeus undertook 

 to make its treasures iconsultable. The understanding of things depends 

 greatly on the perception of their order and relations. When that order and 

 those relations require deep study ere we can comprehend them clearly, the 

 man who gives us a clue, however insignificant it may be in its own nature, 

 is not only conferring on us an invaluable benefit, but endowing the despised 

 instrument with golden value. Such a clue did Linnaeus give when he put 

 forth the sexual system. The scientific systematist, surrounded by the stores 

 of his herbarium, should not forget that those treasures were often amassed 



