DEDICATION 



To Mrs. N*** 



JLhis little book is expressly made for your 

 Amelia, under your direction, to awaken her 

 mind to the contemplation of Nature. 



The use of natural history, in general, is 

 to enable us to distinguish one body from an- 

 other, and to know their properties ; and if 

 Botany, which is one branch of it, had no 

 other advantage than that of giving perspi- 

 cuity and order to our thoughts, a moderate 

 proportion of time in early life would be well 

 • employed in the pursuit. To facilitate this 

 branch of knowledge, the celebrated Linnaeus 

 Si has artificially arranged the vegetable kingdom 

 3 into twenty-four great divisions, or classes, of 

 b whidh I have given examples in each, accom- 

 - panied with such amusing or illustrative facts 

 ; as may serve to make the subject more inte- 

 resting or impressive. In each class I have 

 also given one plant, either a native of our 



