LECT. I.] AND PROGRESS OP BOTANY. 5 



from the ardour of the meridian blaze, the flower 

 which charms his eye, and the fruit that allures 

 and pleases his appetite, excite in him the desire 

 of knowing them again ; he marks some peculiar 

 feature or characteristic which he observes in 

 them ; and by these they are ever after recog- 

 nised. He even proceeds, in some degree, to 

 name and to class them. Thus, whatever may 

 be the language which is the medium of his ideas, 

 he confers a name on a fruit which he has seen 

 and tasted. Let us suppose the term he has em- 

 ployed to be plum, and that the fruit is of a 

 green colour. In a short time, meeting with fruit 

 resembling in shape and some other circum- 

 stances that which he already knows by the 

 name of plum, but of a purple colour, he names 

 this a purple plum ; and in the same manner he 

 denominates a third a yellow plum. Here plum 

 is the generic term, and green, purple, and yel- 

 low, specific appellations. In thus acting, there- 

 fore, the savage makes a step towards a science, 

 which, as such, is unknown to him ; and, without 

 intending it, performs one office of the Botanist. 



But it is not till long after this period, till 

 society has attained some regular form, and till 

 men begin to perceive that a concurrence of similar 

 circumstances is necessary for the reproduction 

 of certain appearances, and that the operations of 

 nature are not the effects of fortuitous causes, 



B3 



