CHAPTER II. 



AND PAR- 

 TICULARLY BOTANY. — OF THE GENERAL TEX- 

 TURE or PLANTS. 



JNatural History properly signifies that study by 

 which we learn to distinguish from one another the 

 natural bodies, whether Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral, 

 around us; to discover as much as possible their nature 

 and properties, and especially their natural dependence 

 on each other in the i^eneral scale of beings. In a more 

 extensive sense it may be said to teach their secondary 

 properties, or the various uses to which they have been, 

 or may be; converted, in the service of mankind or of 

 other animals ; inasmuch as an acquaintance with their 

 natural qualities is our only sure guide to a knowledge 

 of their artificial uses. But as this definition would 

 include many arts and sciences, each of them sufficient 

 to occupy any common mind, as Agriculture, Diete- 

 tics, Medicine, and many others, it is sufficient for a 

 philosophical naturalist to be acquainted with the ge- 

 neral principles upon which such arts and sciences are 

 founded. 



That part of Natural History w-hich concerns plants 

 is called Botany, from BoTccr/j, the Greek word for a 

 herb or grass. It may be divided into three branches : 



