STUDY OF BOTANY. 



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sonous, not only in the growing state, but, as I am assured by those who have suffered 

 from it, even when vegetation has ceased and no sap is flowing. 



Having now reviewed all the species which may be applied to the object desired, I 

 will refer to a Chinese species, Rhus succedanum, from Mhich the red lac is made, and 

 which might be introduced and cultivated here. It is singular that so many useful 

 and so many poisonous shrubs should be comprised in one genus. 



In addition to the poisonous species already described, we have in plenty around 

 us, Ukus toxicodendron, or poison ivy — a vine which runs over so many fences, and 

 climbs so many trees; and in Pennsylvania and Virginia, Rhus viridijlorum, also very 

 poisonous; and there is also Rhus 2^iiinilum — a dwarf shrub, found most plentifully 

 in Vermont and Lower Canada, and also said to grown in Upper Carolina, which is 

 deemed the most poisonous of all. 



In California they have the Yedra or Rhus viridc, which abounds in the mining 

 districts, growing under the Oak trees, and is the only plant there that looks green 

 and flourishing during the torrid heat of summer. Most woefully have the miners 

 suffered from this poisonous plant. 



In the Island of Java there is a poisonous species, Hhus Javanicnm, so celebrated 

 for its deleterious properties that it has been sometimes confused with the Bohon Upas 

 tree of fabulous notoriety. There is another species found at Macao, and one in 

 Barbary, and above a dozen species are natives of the region about the Cape of Good 

 Ilope ; but of these the peculiar properties arc unknown. 



STUDY OF BOTANY. 



BY S. B. BUCKLEY. 



"Wiiv is not botany studied more ? There is scarcely a school or college in the United 

 States in which botany is taught, and very few in which thorough instruction in it is 

 given. By thorough teaching, we mean where the instructor has a good knowledge 

 of all the plants and trees growing in the vicinity of the school, — not only knowing 

 their names, but also their classes, orders, and properties. Under such a teacher, if 

 the students form herbariums for themselves, they will scarcely fail to gain knowledge 

 which will be both useful and practical. Useful, because it will add much to their 

 happiness whenever they go into the garden, fields, or woods ; and practical, because 

 they can then deal understandingly with the vegetation with which this beautiful earth 

 is clothed, and without which it would be a barren, uninhabited waste. In some of 

 our academies and schools, a few young ladies, and perhaps gentleman, recite a {qw 

 lessons and analyze a few plants under a teacher who does not know and can not tell 

 the names of one half of the plants growing within five miles of the school. Indeed, 

 we believe there is not one of the nine colleges in this State in which botany forms a 

 prominent study ; and in only three of them is it named in their course of stu 

 nor do we think any of said colleges has a good botanist as professor. Yale colleg 



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