122 FOREST CULTURE AND 
unsurpassed magnificence, to overshade here our path- 
ways. How are these thousands of species of Ficus, 
all distinct in appearance, in character, and in uses— 
how are they to be recognized, unless a diagnosis of 
each becomes carefully elaborated and recorded, head- 
ed by a specific name ? 
Without descriptive botany all safe discrimination 
becomes futile. To bear our share in building up an 
universal system of specific delimitation of all plants 
is a task well worthy of the patronage of an intelligent 
and high-minded people. The physician is thereby 
guided to draw safe comparisons in reference to the 
action of herbs and roots which he wishes to prescribe, 
as available from native resources. Thus it was 
through Victorian researches that not only the close 
affinity of Goodeniacez to the order of Gentianeze was 
brought to light, but simultaneously a host of herbs 
and shrubs of the former order gained for therapeutic 
uses. When once it was ascertained that the so- 
called Myrtle-tree of our forest moors was a true Beech 
the artisan then also found offered to him a timber of 
great similarity to that of the Beech forests of his 
British home. 
Of the grass genus Panicum we know the world 
possesses, according to a recent botanic disquisition, 
about eight hundred and fifty species, all more or less 
nutritive. But one only of these is the famous Coa- 
pin of Angola (Panicum spectabile), one of the War- 
ree (Panicum miliaceum), one the Bhadiee (Panicum 
pilosum), one the Derran (P. frumentaceum). We 
might dispense, perhaps, as far as these few are con- 
cerned, with their scientific appellations, though not 
even the. mere task of naming has become therewith 
