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of inquiry into their natures and properties, had ever en- 

 tered into the mind of man. Such objects are comparatively 

 of recent date. Some of them have arisen almost under 

 our own observation. They are now become the most im- 

 portant and instructive part of botanical science; and 

 when united to an elegant and disinterested love of the 

 beauty of nature, as the work of God and an emblem of 

 his own boundless perfection, they constitute, in all their 

 branches, one of the most refined, improving, and unex- 

 ceptionable pursuits, that can claim the notice or employ 

 the leisure of persons of either sex, or of any age or condi- 

 tion. Can it be necessary for me, before I go any further, 

 to expatiate on the recommendations and advantages 

 of my favourite study, to which I have devoted my life? 

 I take it for granted that none of you would take the 

 trouble to come here without some prepossession in its 

 favour; and if your partiality be not increased by the 

 views, however limited, which I shall have time and op- 

 portunity to lay before you, I might now raise your ex- 

 pectations only to disappoint them. 



We cannot proceed far in even the most general and 

 comprehensive views of the physiology of plants, without 

 a perception that such inquiries are eminently useful in 

 teaching us to think, to consider the most common objects 

 in a perfectly new light, and with the help, as it were, of 

 new senses. How many of the more intelligent and im- 

 proved of rational beings have enjoyed, and daily do enjoy, 

 the beauty and perfume of flowers, the verdure and grate- 

 ful shade of trees, in all their luxuiiancy of foliage, — with- 

 out considering by what means or for what purpose those 

 lovely forms and colours are so infinitely varied ! How 

 many taste the delicious variety of fruits, and even see them 

 grow gradually to perfection, without bestowing a thought 

 on the possible means by which these various exquisite 

 scents and flavours are extracted from the same common 

 soil; or how the air, the warmth, or the light of heaven, lend 

 their respective assistance to the production of such won- 



