422 THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCLOPAEDIA. 



tany, the study of the forms and structures of the plants found in a fossil 

 state in the various strata of which the earth is composed. 



But more particularly for our purpose, this science may be divided into 

 two distinct branches. (1) Systematic Botany, and (2) Vegetable Physi- 

 ology. The first teaches the names, uses, history, and classification of 

 plants, the second, the manner in which the various organs of plants are 

 formed, the purposes for which they have been destined, the manner in 

 which they act, and are influenced by internal causes. 



Systematic botany is of direct importance to farmers, so far as it enables 

 them to recognise the various plants employed in cultivation, or the weeds 

 which are troublesome to them. 



Vegetable physiology, however, is that part of botany which farmers- 

 should make themselves well acquainted with. There is scarcely an oper- 

 ation in the art of agriculture which does not depend upon a knowledge 

 of the phenomena which are explained by vegetable physiology, and no 

 man can possibly understand the principle on which he acts unless he has 

 made himself master of its fundamental laws. All the great improvements 

 in the preparation of land for cropping were proposed in the first instance 

 by vegetable physiologists, or depend essentially upon the operation of 

 laws which they have explained. Drainage is one example of this ; the 

 improvement of the roots of plants, the augmentation of the productive 

 powers resident in particular crops, the preservation of the purity of their 

 breeds, the mode of manuring them, the destruction, of weeds, the manage- 

 ment of timber, and many other things are wholly influenced by laws 

 which it is impossible to understand correctly in the absence of a familiar- 

 ity with the principles of vegetable physiology, independent of chemistry. 

 A person desirous of studying agriculture upon scientific principles, requires 

 to know the circumstances which affect the germination of seeds ; why 

 in some seasons, they will not grow, while in others their success is per- 

 fect. His attention must be drawn to the conditions most favourable or 

 unfavourable to the progress of the seedling plant, to the gradual consoli- 

 dation of its parts, to the development of the wondrous organs which the 

 Creator has given it to feed with and multiply. 



They all are most important subjects of consideration with those wha 

 would study agriculture philosophically, or who expect to introduce im- 

 provements into ordinary practice, for although it may be true that acci- 

 dent has led to more discoveries than science ; yet there can be no doubt 

 that such discoveries would have been long anticipated had science been 

 consulted 



