Ch. 1.1 ADVANTAGES OF THE STUDY. 11 



ask rour notice. If you know nothing of Botany, you may in- 

 deed love to look at pretty flowers, and to pull them to pieces , 

 but in this there is little amusement and no instruction. It is 

 when your reason is brought into action in order to examine how 

 these wonderful pieces of work are put together, and to trace 

 their various properties and relations, that the notice of flowers 

 Becomes important as a means of improvement. 



11. 5th. The study of Botany will teach you to be systematic 

 in othei things: you will find that men of science have so ar- 

 ranged plants, that all, even dandelions, daisies, and thistles, 

 have their exact places in the system of classification. It is this 

 exactness of arrangement which makes us able, amidst so vast 

 a multitude of plants, to find the description of each one. II 

 all the articles in a house were thrown together without order, 

 you would be troubled to find a needle, a pair of scissors, a booR, 

 or an article of dress. But by means of system, a person who 

 possesses a hundred thousand articles, may arrange them so that 

 any one can be found at any moment. 



12. As a house is divided into apartments, so in Botany the 

 vegetable kingdom is divided into classes ; as each apartment 

 contains sideboards, bureaus, closets, &c., for disposing of dif- 

 ferent articles, so each class in Botany contains orders in which 

 are arranged the individual plants. There are also subdivisions 

 of orders in Botany, which may be considered as corresponding 

 to the different drawers of bureaus, and shelves of closets, so 

 that a Botanist is seldom obliged to look over a whole order be- 

 fore he finds the particular plant which he seeks for. Now some 

 children are very careless with respect to the arrangement of 

 the clothes, books, and other articles, with which their kind 

 friends provide them : it appears to me, that when they see how 

 beautiful is the systematic arrangement of plants in Botany, 

 they will at once resolve that every thing which belongs to 

 them, or that they have the care of, shall be arranged according 

 to some rule, so that they may always find what they want, 

 without being obliged to make a long search for it. I could 

 spend a great deal of time in telling you of the advantages of a 

 knowledge of Botany ; but it is better that you should proceed 

 directly to the study, and then your own minds will suggest to 

 you many reasons why it is to be classed among the most useful 

 snd interesting oranches of science. I will however mention 

 Ojie farther recommendation of this study. 



11. What fifthly 1 



1*2. How do the divisions of a house correspond to the division* IB 

 Botanv 7 



