114 BOTANY. 



lion. Since the da}s of Linnaeus, botany has (lis})layed a more 

 important aspect than it ever did before. The impulse which its study 

 received from the genius of Linnaeus was continued by numerous 

 writers of first rate ability, amongst whom cannot be forgotten the 

 talented, ingenious, and indefatigable Jussicun, whose system of the 

 natural orders of plants will fonn the basis of all systems of vegetable 

 classification so long as botany is studied as a science. 



I have said, the general impression that the study of botany is 

 unprofitable, is an error ; this is evident, when we consider the national 

 importance of only a few items included in the catalogue of the vege- 

 table kingdom. 



Our forest trees, on the existence of which so much of the stability 

 of our buildings and of our navy depends, are familiar instances of this 

 kind. For instance, there are two kinds ofoak growing in England, 

 one of them furnishing wood of the most durable kind, the other com- 

 paratively w orthless. These are, quercus pedunculata, and quercu s 

 sessile. No one except a botanical observer would be able to distin- 

 guish the one from the other, yet on this discrimination depends all 

 the benefits derivable from the cultivation of the one, and all the dis- 

 appointments and disadvantages, resulting from the propagation of the 

 other. 



If we turn again to the natural family graminiee, or grasses, we 

 shall find them of still greater utility to mankind, being in some coun- 

 tries indispensable to human existence. 



To this extensive family belong all the corn plants, such as barley, 

 oats, rye, wheat, maize and rice, besides all the fodder grasses which 

 supply nutriment to all graminiverous animals. To this family also 

 belong the sugar-cane, the produce of which is of such immense com- 

 mercial and economical value. There is not one, in fact, of the 1800 

 or 2000 species of which this vast natural group of plants consists, that 

 is not of interest in the soil and climate where it vegetates. Many 

 of these, no doubt, much improved by cultivation, so as to be scarcely 

 like the original, as is the case with the sloe of our edges, compared 

 with our garden plum. 



Much of our raiment, also, is derived, from the vegetable kingdom ; 

 the cotton plant for instance, which is now an article of use in every 

 country of the globe. To this may be added the woody fibres of the 

 hemp and flax plants, which, as articles of domestic and commercial 

 convenience, could hardly be dispensed with at present. 



