JANUARY. 5 
understood and appreciated. Some persons are disposed to 
think it a useless study,-to laugh at those who pursue it 
zealously, and ridicule them for showing great delight at 
the discovery of a plant they have not met with before, but 
if they will compare this enthusiasm with their own in any 
favourite study, they will find the feeling similar. Unfortu- 
nately it is the custom to look on weeds with contempt, and 
to forget that they are as much the work of God as the 
solar system, and that every insignificant herb is a fresh 
proof of the wisdom and goodness of God in the Creation. 
As this little book is intended for those only who really 
wish to know something of this part of the works of 
nature, I need say no more by way of inducement, but turn 
at once to the object of these pages. 
The remainder of this chapter will be devoted to ex- 
plaining the plan to be pursued, and the best method of 
forming a collection of dried plants, a Hortus Siccus, or 
Herbarium, as it is called, so essential to the thorough at- 
tainment of the knowledge of Botany. The second chapter 
will give tables of the two systems of classification, and the 
explanation of the several parts of plants which ought to be 
known, so that the reader must be familiar with the contents 
of that portion before any use can be made of the rest of 
