race were placed in a garden, and their occupation its 

 care. The same duty has devolved, in all its fresh- 

 ness and interest, on their descendants, unimpaired 

 by time, or the changes of matter. It is. Gen- 

 tlemen, a striking and happy argument of the value 

 of your profession, that you are thus able to restore 

 to a deluged and overthrown world its former beauty 

 and glory. 



The progress of Botany was, for centuries, slow. 

 With the increase of the human family, arose an in- 

 creased want of subsistence. Such is its brief early 

 history. The method of appropriating to the sus- 

 tenance and support of the physical system, the va- 

 rious articles of food, and in what manner delete- 

 rious substances were discriminated from salutary, is 

 a curious question in the history of man. Thus 

 later experience has proved that some of the most 

 noxious plants may become, by the process of art, 

 wholesome and nutritious. The fresh juice of the 

 " Jatropha Manihot " is of a highly poisonous quali- 

 ty ; but, expressed from the root, renders it one of the 

 most nutritive articles of food. To the Solaneae we 

 owe some of the most valuable vegetables, while 

 many species of the family are decidedly injurious. 

 The well-known qualities of the Umbelliferce are fa- 

 miliar to every one, as combining both medicine and 

 poison, the active agents of health and death. The; 

 *Parsnep and fCarrot, both valuable, in their cultivat- 

 ed state, as articles of food, and in rural economy, 

 are yet troublesome and noxious weeds, as natural- 

 ized species in our fields : whereas the Cereal plants 



* Pastinaca saliva. f Daucua carota. 



