104: NATURAL HISTORY 



to be discovered, as the wants of men demand them, 

 and the study of plants is more thoroughly and 

 and generally pursued ! To investigate the laws of 

 that department of nature upon which all animal 

 life depends, is certainly an imperative duty. But 

 more than this, for our present purpose we see this 

 kingdom the channel by which many of the luxuries 

 of life are poured in upon us, and the only source of 

 many materials necessary to the present state of 

 civilization. The fiber which clothes us upon 

 which we print our books the gums that surround 

 our submarine cables and take a thousand forms of 

 usefulness, are already sources of national as well as 

 individual wealth. To increase these products and 

 ward off diseases to which valuable plants are liable, 

 are the direct results of thorough scientific investi- 

 gations in the various departments of Botany. All 

 our knowledge has failed to arrest the blight of the 

 potato; but all feel that the more perfectly we 

 understand vegetable physiology, and all the habits 

 of particular plants, the better we shall be prepared 

 to improve them in quality, to increase their 

 quantity, and protect them from injury. Science 



