PREFACE. XXI 



striking in some of the phenomena which 

 it displays, is in other points less pleasing 

 to a tender and delicate mind. In botany 

 all is elegance and delight. No painful, 

 disgusting, unhealthy experiments or en- 

 quiries are to be made. Its pleasures 

 spring up under our feet, and, as we pur- 

 sue them, reward us with health and 

 serene satisfaction. None but the most 

 foolish or depraved could derive any 

 thing from it but what is beautiful, or 

 pollute its lovely scenery with unamiable 

 or unhallowed images. Those who do so, 

 either from corrupt taste or malicious de- 

 sign, can be compared only to the fiend 

 entering into the garden of Eden. 



Let us turn from this odious picture 

 to the contemplation of Nature, ever new, 

 ever abundant in inexhaustible variety. 

 Whether we scrutinize the damp recesses 

 of woods in the wintry months, when the 

 numerous tribes of mosses are displaying 



