PRELIMINARY DISCOURSES. 



DISCOUBSB I. 

 Definition of Botany. Inducements to the Study. 



HAVING prepared a new Edition of the Chester County Flora, 

 partly for the purpose of including those plants "which have been 

 detected in the County since the preceding one was published but 

 chiefly for the sake of presenting the work in a form somewhat less 

 diffuse in its details, as well as more congenial in its arrangement 

 with the present state of the Science, I thought it might be accept- 

 able to the youthful Cultivators of Botany, in our venerable Baili- 

 wick, to premise some general observations touching the subject to 

 which the volume is devoted. 



This I propose to do, in a few brief and familiar Discourses ; 

 such, in substance, as I have been in the habit of employing, 

 orally, when aiding the researches of the Pupils in some of the 

 West-Chester Seminaries. 



As in all attempts to impart or acquire information, it is most 

 advantageous and satisfactory to begin at the beginning, we may as 

 well commence by a definition of the Science, to which we propose 

 to direct our attention. It derives its name from the Greek word 

 Botdne meaning an Herb, and may be briefly defined as "the 

 natural history of the Vegetable Kingdom ;" or, to be somewhat 

 more explicit, it is that Science which has for its object a knowledge 

 of the structure, functions, and characters of Plants together with a 

 just comprehension of those general affinities, and peculiar features, 

 by which they may be grouped into kindred families, and yet be 

 distinguishable, among themselves, into well-marked Genera, and 

 Species. 



A very natural preliminary inquiry, on the part of a Pupil 

 engaging in the study of Botany or, indeed, in any other study 

 would be respecting the utility, or value, of such an attainment; 

 and therefore in order to encourage the young Beginner it may 

 be well to hint at some of the inducements to the undertaking. 

 These may be considered in reference to mental discipline, intel- 

 lectual gratification, and practical usefulness. It is impossible for 



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