ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



23 H 



schools. And of what use is botany to ihc nuilliliulc, uho must ol" ne- 

 cessity he content with a common-school education alone ? [s this sci- 

 ence to help the toilers earn bread, or the business m;in conduct trade, 

 or the manufacturer build, fashion, and construct ? 



I'hese questions are asked often, and more, they are generally asked in 

 way that a shows that the inquirer is sure a negative must be given. And vet 

 this science has an immense bearing upon every material interest in the 

 world. Not only does the daily bread of man all come, directly or indi- 

 rectly, from the physiological action of the plant, but all his comforts, all 

 his luxuries, even his health and his very existence, alike depend upon 

 vegetable physiology. (.)ur interest in vegetable life need not stop at 

 the point that vegetable substances are food of man or food of animals, 

 which, in turn, are food for man ; nor with the point that vegetation, 

 directly or indirectly, houses and clothes us ; nor with the point that 

 vegetation constructs the hydrocarbons which, in their combustion, fur- 

 nish the force to do the wonderful works necessary among civilized peo- 

 ples. No, we may go a stej) further, and find that the trees, the grasses, 

 and every herb of the lields act upon the atmosphere and the earth, they 

 are making climate and building up soil ; from the lichen, which helps 

 the water and the atmosphere to crumble the rocks to earth, to the 

 great tree, which is a reser\oir of moisture tor the parched air to draw 

 upon, while it retards excessive evaporation form the earth beneath, 

 which is at one time a source of supply of electricity, and at another a 

 silent, safe conductor from the surcharged clouds, every pLuit has its 

 meteorological influence, immeasurably small perhaps, yet definite and 

 certain. Nations prosper or suffer respectively, just as questions of veg- 

 etable physiology turn out in their favor or against them. The potato, 

 which has an influence impossible to measure, in cheapening living, and 

 consequently labor, is a notable instance of how great an influence one 

 plant may have upon the welfare and happiness of many peoples. And 

 cotton, corn, and sugar-cane are like examples of great plant interests. 



A general potato rot means starvation in Europe. And a general 

 failure of the corn crop would soon mean poverty and bankruptcy here. 



The waste of timber means barrenness to any country. Unhappy 

 Persia sees it in her lamine; and our worse drouths and worse storms 

 are only the terrible forecast of what we are drifting toward, because of 

 the same sin against nature's economy. 



Then, can any one say that a knowledge of plants, their action on 

 earth and air, their uses, their peculiarities, beauties, is a non-essential 

 in a utilitarian education .'' 



There are some hundreds less springs in this county (Stephenson) 

 alone than there were twenty years ago, and wells have to be deepened 

 every few years. This state of things is largely owing to forest denu- 

 dation : not here only, but everywhere over the country. 



Thus you see that the processes of vegetable life are intensely inter- 

 esting, if we properly view the subject. And this subject is naturally 

 connected with the rest of the natural sciences; with chemistry, through 



