LECTURES, 



LECTURE I. 



INTRODUCTION SKETCH OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS 



OF BOTANY UTILITY OF THE SCIENCE METHOD 



OF STUDYING IT, AND PLAN OF THE COURSE. 



GENTLEMEN, 



IN commencing a Course of Lectures 

 on any branch of science, the Lecturer must ne- 

 cessarily regard his auditors as totally ignorant of 

 the subject of which he is about to treat ; and must 

 endeavour not only to awaken their love for it, 

 by conveying some idea of its nature, and the 

 advantages to be derived from the study of it^ 

 but, by tracing its origin and progress, or enter- 

 ing into the details of its history, to elevate their 

 ideas of its importance, by a display of the great 

 and illustrious names that swell the catalogue of 

 its votaries, and of the estimation in which it has 

 been held by mankind in prior ages. 

 VOL. i. B 



