RELATIONS OF BOTANY TO AGRICULTURE. * 425 



with all the properties, degrees, and natural places of the same, 

 gathered and made by William Turner, Physician unto the Duke 

 of Somersettes Grace." Botauic gardens were formerly called 

 physic gardens, and were designed especially for the instruction 

 of physicians, the growth of drugs, and for testing the medicinal 

 properties of new plants. The Roman emperors maintained such a 

 garden on the island of Crete, and Montezuma had one at Mexico 

 at the time of the Spanish conquest. Medical botany, at the 

 present time, is mereby an important branch of the applied science, 

 and one very greatly neglected in this country. Botany, how- 

 ever, is something more than the science of roots and herbs. 



Another common objection against this study is founded upon 

 the fact that the botanical names of plants are in Latin, and the 

 descriptive terms are largely derived from the ancient languages 

 and must be learned by careful application. If the botanist had 

 no other aim than to acquire the names of the one hundred thou- 

 sand species of the vegetable kingdom it would be a forbidding 

 and unremunerative task ; though it should be remembered that a 

 Latin word is quite as easily retained in memory as an English 

 word that is new. Latin names are, also, much more easily 

 spelled and pronounced than the popular names applied to plants 

 in their native countries, when they have any, but the greater part 

 have none whatever till Latin ones are given them. There are 



* 



many obvious advantages in botanists of all nations having as 

 they do this one universal language, and the precision of botani- 

 cal descriptions resulting from an accurate terminology is moreover 

 a sourceof very great pleasure to the student, and renders botany 

 one of the most useful means of mental discipline. Comparing 

 botanical studies with the classics and mathematics, Professor 

 Lindley says : " These subjects train the memory and the reason- 

 ing faculties, but they do not touch the habit of observation." 

 This is of prime importance, and best acquired by tne pursuits of 

 the naturalist, llence Professor L'dward Forbes remarks: "The 

 study of an animal or vegetable species is the perfection of obser- 

 vation as far as that species is concerned. The form, the sub- 

 stance, the qualities, the phenomena of existence, the influence of 

 surrounding objects, are all observed with the greatest precision 

 and defined so as to be capable of expression in words. No point 

 affecting that species is left untouched. The study of a group or 

 genus of animals or vegetables is in like manner the perfection of 

 discrimination. All the members of the group are compared in all 



