JOHN BECOMES AN ESSAYIST. 263 



expanded, some just opening, others whose seed-vessels 

 may be nearly ripe, and, if possible, an entire specimen of 

 the plant." 



After speaking of plants being characterised according to 

 their habitats, as aquatic, marine, fluvial, palustrous, and 

 fontinal, he divides the vegetable kingdom into the three 

 grand divisions of grasses, trees, and the rest, and continues : 

 "There are upwards of three hundred grasses upon the 

 earth.* They furnish pasturage for cattle. The smaller 

 seeds are food for birds, and the larger for man ; such as corn 

 and rye and wheat and barley for man, and oats and hay 

 for horses." It is curious to find such a porridge eater as 

 John practically adopting Dr. Johnson's famous description 

 of oats "Food for man in Scotland, and for horses in 

 England." 



" Our most important articles of food and clothing are 

 derived from the grasses, such as bread to eat, beer, milk, 

 butter, cheese ; and leather and wool and all the advantages 

 produced from the use of cattle would be lost without them." 



He advocates the teaching of Natural History to children 

 by the argument that, " the very first time that an infant 

 exercises its feet upon the sward or grass, or stretches its 

 arms in the .open air, it is to chase butterflies or pull wild 

 flowers." 



After remarking that there were then " upwards of eighty 

 botanists from one time to another," f he could not proceed 

 without an enthusiastic reference to the greatest botanist of 



* I cannot say what classification of grasses John adopts, but there 

 are now almost 4000 known species of grasses ; that is, about one- 

 twentieth of phanerogamous plants . 



f Pritzel enumerates 1 5,000 publications in his " Thesaurus "-(185 1) ! 



