38 OBJECT OF THESE LECTURES. [LECT.-I. 



student must range the fields, and find the objects 

 of his researches in their most perfect states, and 

 in those places where the hand of Nature has 

 planted them. For exotics he must have recourse 

 to the Botanic Garden; and, although he cannot 

 expect to procure the specimens in a state of per- 

 fection, yet he will obtain more information from 

 examining them, such as they are, than can be ac- 

 quired from the perusal of the best descriptions *, 

 assisted by the best plates. 



Such is the outline of the plan of study I 

 would recommend ; and which I shall endeavour 

 to fill up by this course of Lectures. But I must 

 pbserve, that no lectures can convey a complete 

 knowledge of any Science. They- are intended 

 rnerely to assist the student in his inquiries, and, 

 like a pioneer, to open a path, the intricacies of 

 which must be afterwards prosecuted by himself. 

 He must endeavour to woo Nature in her most 

 secret recesses ; but he may rest assured that she 

 is not to be won without constant assiduity and 

 attention; that she is a very coy mistress, and 

 will notbesto\tf her favours upon the indolent and 

 the indifferent; while, on the contrary, on the at- 

 tentive and the industrious, she lavishes her 

 choicest treasures with an unlimited liberality. 



* The best systematic works are, the Genera Plantarum of 

 Linnaeus; Persoon's Synopsis Plantarum ; Withering's Botany ; 

 Smith's Flora Britannica; and Willdcnow's edition of the 

 Species Plantarum.' 



