as a Studijfor young People. 127 



situation affords, in judging of their properties, will suffice to 

 set aside this most unreflecting mistake. Is it nothing that a 

 man, surrounded by plants wholly new to him, should be 

 able, in a moment, to determine with which he might relieve 

 his hunger with impunity? Is it nothing to know, that, how- 

 ever a fruit may tempt his thirsty lip, it were death to imbibe 

 one particle of its juice ? Was it nothing that Linnaeus, by 

 his knowledge of plants, at once put a stop to a mortality 

 among the cattle in Lapland? — But enough; let us turn to 

 the more frequent objection of the uselessness of botany, as a 

 general study or accomplishment. We readily learn to un- 

 dervalue knowledge we do not possess ; forgetting that we are 

 no better qualified to form an opinion on the subject, than to 

 judge of a book we have not read. It is a common mistake 

 with those who are totally unacquainted with botany, that it 

 consists of nothing but poring over flowers with a magnifying 

 glass, counting their stamens and pistils, &c. and then turning 

 over half a dozen volumes of technical description; all for the 

 purpose of ascertaining the names of the plants examined. 

 Thus thfey take one branch for the whole body of the science, 

 and at once decide against it as a tiresome and useless en- 

 quiry. It was once observed to me by a youth of very supe- 

 rior abilities and attainments, that, to him, botany appeared 

 to be an endless solving of riddles. The simile, as far as 

 regards one particular branch of the science, is not a bad one: 

 but, since these riddles are only to be solved by the most 

 attentive observation, comparison, and enquiry; since from 

 these exercises of the mind results an acquaintance with many 

 admirable productions of nature, which excite many of our 

 best and most pleasurable feelings ; these riddles are not to be 

 disregarded, but rather to be encouraged, as a means of im- 

 proving and refining the mind and the heart. 



No one branch of knowledge can be fully appreciated by 

 those who do not actually possess it. We can neither judge 

 of the difficulties nor attractions of any study that we have not 

 ourselves attempted ; and it is only in proportion with our 

 progress that we can estimate the object in view. Let us re- 

 member these truisms, and be cautious in pronouncing upon 

 subjects of which we are wholly ignorant. Zoology is, per- 

 haps, the branch of natural history the most generally inter- 

 esting ; but botany has one great advantage, in offering more 

 opportunity for practical illustration. To females, in parti- 

 cular, it offers this advantage. A lady may read zoological 

 works; may be highly interested in the endless variety of 

 animals, and the peculiar economy of each ; quadrupeds, birds, 



