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UNIVERSITY 



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INTRODUCTION. 





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JN ATURAL History properly signifies that study by which 

 we learn to distinguish from each other, all bodies, whether 

 animal, vegetable, or mineral, which surround us ; to discover 

 as much as possible their nature and properties, and espe- 

 cially their dependence on each other in the general scale of 

 beings. In a more extensive sense, it may be said to teach 

 the secondary properties of natural bodies, or the various uses 

 to which they have been or may be converted, in the service 

 of man; for an acquaintance with tlieir properties is our only 

 sure guide to a knowledge of their artificial uses. But as 

 this definition would include many arts and sciences, each of 

 which would be sufficient to occupy any common mind, such 

 s agriculture, medicine, chemistry, and many others, it is 

 .ufficient for a philosophical naturalist to be acquainted with 

 " ie general principles upon which such arts and sciences are 

 founded. 



BOTANY, (from floravr) an herb, from floras, of ftocrKta, I feed, 

 because vegetables are the natural food of mostanimals,) is the 

 science of plants ; or that part of natural history which relates 

 to vegetables. It may be divided into three branches : 1st. 

 The physiology of plants, or a knowledge of the structure and 

 functions of their different parts ; 2dly. The systematical 

 arrangement and denomination of their several kinds ; and, 

 3dly. Their economical or medical properties : all of which 

 should be kept in view by an intelligent botanist. In the 

 utmost extent of the word, Botany signifies a knowledge of 

 plants, and of the uses to which they may be applied, in 

 medicine, chemistry, or the arts in general : but it is com- 

 monly restricted to a bare knowledge of the plants them- 

 selves, and of the distinguishing marks whereby each species 

 may be known from every other. This knowledge is indis- 

 pensably necessary. Many animals are endowed with an in- 

 stinctive faculty of distinguishing salutary from noxious food. 

 Mankind have no such instinct. They must have recourse 

 to experience and to observation. But these are not suffi- 

 cient guides in every case. A general caution, not to eat 

 any thing but what we know to be salutary, will not answer 

 in every instance. A ship's company, in want of provisions, 

 may be thrown upon an uninhabited coast, or a desert island. 

 Entirely ignorant of the nature of the plants they meet with, 

 disease, or a scarcity of animals, may compel them to have 

 recourse to vegetable food. The consequences may be 

 dreadful they must first eat before they can form any cer- 

 tain conclusion; and many lives have already been lost in 

 these hazardous experiments. If the whole science of botany 

 were as complete as some of its parts, very little skill in it 

 would be sufficient to guard with certainty from committing 

 such fatal mistakes. There are certain classes and orders 

 which are called natural, because every genus and species 

 comprehended under them, is not only distinguished by the 

 same characteristic marks, but likewise possesses the same 

 qualities, though not in an equal degree. For instance: shew 

 a botanist the flower tff a plant, the calix of which is a 

 double-valved glume or husk, with three stamina, two pistilla, 

 and one naked seed; he can pronounce with absolute cer- 

 VOL. I. J. 



tainty, that the plant from which the flower was taken, bears 

 seed of a farinaceous quality, and that it may be safely used 

 as food. In like manner, shew him a flower with twelve or 

 more stamina, all inserted into the internal side of the calix, 

 though it belong to a plant growing in Japan, he can pro- 

 nounce without hesitation, that its fruit may be eaten with 

 safety. On the other hand, shew him a plant whose flower 

 has Jive stamina, one pistil, one petal, and whose fruit is of 

 the berry kind ; he will tell you it is poisonous. Facts of 

 this kind render Botany a most interesting science. With 

 respect to medical uses, it is found by experience, that plants, 

 which are distinguished by the same characters in the flower 

 and fruit, have the same qualities, though not always in an 

 equal degree; so that upon inspecting the flower and the 

 fruit, a botanist can determine the effects that will result from 

 its use as a medicine. To determine therefore the medical 

 virtues of all the plants belonging to a particular class, the 

 physician has nothing to do but to ascertain, by a set of clear 

 and unquestionable experiments, the virtues of any one of 

 them ; and this amazingly shortens the labour of investigation. 

 As the number of species are known to be upwards of 20,000 ; 

 by ascertaining the virtues of one genus, at a medium, you 

 determine the number of 12 species. But by ascertaining the 

 virtues of one genus belonging to a natural order, the virtues 

 of perhaps 3 or 400 species are ascertained. A natural 

 arrangement of the classes, orders, genera, and species, free 

 in every instance from heterogeneous combinations, and dis- 

 turbing no real affinities, is the neplus ultra of classification. 

 It is the point of perfection to which every naturalist should 

 labour to approach, though what no one can expect actually 

 to attain. To have formed the idea, is, however, no small 

 advance towards it ; and in itself implies a very important 

 acquisition of knowledge. 



This elegant science, which so manifestly displays the 

 unbounded goodness and wisdom of God, was cultivated in 

 some degree among the ancients, but chiefly with relation to 

 medicine. As, however, they adopted no regular method of 

 distribution and arrangement, the knowledge they gained was 

 soon and easily lost. It would be as tedious as useless here 

 to detail the various systems of those botanists who preceded 

 the great Linneus, as it is well known that the system which 

 bears his name is greatly superior to all that have been hitherto 

 devised. It is called the Sexual System, because founded 

 upon the important discovery, that in plants, as well as in 

 animals, there is an indisputable distinction of the sexes ; 

 the following authenticated proof of which, will probably be 

 acceptable to the intelligent reader. In Vol. xlvii. of the 

 Philosophical Transactions, No. 25, there is a letter from 

 Mr. Mylius of Berlin, concerning a remarkable experiment 

 made upon the palm-tree. He says, " The sex of .plants is 

 very well confirmed, by an experiment that has been made 

 here upon the palma major foliis flabelliformis, or, the 

 greater fan-shaped leaf palm. There is a great tree of this 

 kind in the garden of the Royal Academy. It has flowered 

 and borne fruit these thirty years, but the fruit never ripened, 

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