106 NATURAL HISTORY 



to our own country, if all our young men who 

 travel, our consuls and missionaries, were so versed 

 in science that they should be able at once to detect 

 the valuable properties of plants and their habits, 

 that all capable of introduction might be secured at 

 once. A single plant might repay for all the time 

 and labor of every American student in this depart- 

 ment. But if men are never trained, they do not 

 observe. And if a strange plant is forced upon 

 their attention, they know so little that they can 

 determine nothing of the prospect of improving its 

 qualities by cultivation, or even of cultivating it all. 

 If all those who labor among plants, and have 

 opportunities of introducing new, were well versed 

 in Botany as it is now understood, this source of 

 wealth would be vastly increased in a single year. 

 The progress would be rapid. The quality would 

 be improved, and the number would be increased. 

 Useful plants would take the place of those useless 

 or noxious. Our forests would be better preserved, 

 and new forests would be springing up on rocky 

 hills and neglected swamps. Millions of acres, bar- 

 ren and dreary, might be gradually supplying our 



