14 INTRODUCTION. 



THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM 



is divided into twenty-four classes, according to the number and 

 position of the stamens ; the greater part of the orders from the 

 number of the pistils in the flower ; others by the situation of 

 the seeds and form of the seed-vessels ; in compound flowers 

 from the arrangement of the florets; and the great class of 

 cryptogamic plants, or plants without conspicuous flowers, form 

 four orders, divided into Filices, Musci, Algce, and Fungi. 



THE MINERAL KINGDOM 



is divided into three classes, viz. I. PETR.E, II. MINEILE, III. 

 FOSSILIA, and numerous subdivisions. But as the Mineral 

 Kingdom had attracted but little of the attention of Linnaeus, 

 and the progress of Chemistry has since changed the whole 

 science of Mineralogy, it is not necessary here to give the in- 

 ferior details. 



^ 



Such is the" field of realities," as M. Lamarck terms it, which 

 the study of nature offers to the intelligent mind. Life in all 

 its aspects is exhibited in countless forms, and the regular 

 succession of organized beings present the creation in the attrac- 

 tive features of perennial youth. Without herbivorous races, 

 the vegetable kingdom would soon encumber the surface of the 

 globe ; without carnivorous animals the others would multiply 

 beyond their means of support ; and provision is made in those 

 tribes whose food is decomposing substances, to free the earth 

 from dead animal remains. By no conceivable means could the 

 same amount of existence aid happiness be attained ; and the 

 whole system is so wonderfully arranged, that among the num- 

 berless existences which peojle the earth, the air, and the waters, 

 there is a constant harmony between the means of existence and 

 the existing beings. While animals useful to others are pro- 

 duced in amazing numbers, ;he fecundity of others whose phy- 

 sical powers might otherwise give them a superiority are limited, 

 and species apparently the most defenceless are provided with 

 means of protection which insure their perpetuity. To Man 

 alone, as the intelligent head of the whole, is given the dominion 

 over the inferior creatures ; his reason has enabled him to ap- 

 ply to his use the whole of the organized and inorganic bodies 



