INTRODUCTION. 15 



second great department of the science, namely, SYSTEMATIC 

 BOTANY, or the study of plants in their relations to one another ; 

 as forming a vegetable kingdom, which embraces an immense 

 number of species, more or less like each other, and there- 

 fore capable of being grouped into kinds or genera, into orders, 

 classes, &c. 



6. Thus arises CLASSIFICATION, or the arrangement of plants in 

 systematic order, so as to show their relationships ; also SPECIAL 

 DESCRIPTIVE BOTANY, embracing a scientific account of all known 

 plants, designated by proper names, and distinguished by clear 

 and exact descriptions. Necessarily connected with these depart- 

 ments is TERMINOLOGY or GLOSSOLOGY, which relates to the appli- 

 cation of distinctive names or terms to the several organs of plants, 

 and to their numberless modifications of form, &c. The accom- 

 plishment of this object renders necessary a copious vocabulary of 

 technical terms ; for the current words of ordinary language are 

 not sufficiently numerous or precise for this purpose. New terms 

 are therefore introduced, for accurately expressing the great vari- 

 ety of new ideas to which the exact comparison of plants gives 

 rise ; and thus a technical language has gradually been formed, 

 in this as in every other science, by which the botanist is able to 

 describe the objects of his study with a perspicuity and brevity not 

 otherwise attainable. 



7. These several departments include the whole natural history 

 of the vegetable kingdom, considered independently. But, under 

 a third point of view, plants may be contemplated in respect to 

 their relations to other parts of the creation ; whence arises a se- 

 ries of interesting inquiries, which variously connect the science 

 of Botany with Chemistry, Geology, Physical Geography, &c. 

 Thus, the relations of vegetables to the mineral kingdom, consid- 

 ered as to their influence upon the soil and the air, as to what 

 vegetation draws from the soil, and what it imparts to it, what it 

 takes from and what it renders to the air we breathe ; and, again, 

 the relations of the vegetable to the animal kingdom, considered as 

 furnishing sustenance to the latter, and the mutual subservience of 

 plants and animals in the general economy of the world, all 

 these inquiries belong partly to Chemistry, and partly to Vegeta- 

 ble Physiology ; while the practical deductions from them lay the 

 foundation of scientific Agriculture, &c. The relations of plants 

 to the earth, considered in reference to their natural distribution 



