194 The Evolution of Botany. 



the law of evolution. It shows the promiscuity and non- 

 coherence of all early botanic work, and shows how indefinite 

 the knowledge it conveyed was concerning the vegetable 

 world as a whole; how before Jussieu the roots of the 

 science consisted in a lot of arts and discrete discoveries, 

 which, like roots, worked in the dark so far as scientific 

 principle goes. With Jussieu the stem of the evolving tree 

 made its appearance, and after him we find the stem grown 

 into a trunk, with branches spreading, and all united as an 

 organic whole in a tree of botanical knowledge. 



The survival of the fittest is well illustrated in the sur- 

 vival of the natural over the other classifications. Its 

 survival is intrinsically a most striking exemplification of 

 evolution in that it arranges all plants according to the 

 plan by which the vegetable creation evolved. The birth 

 of botany as a science began with the development of the 

 natural classification, and it is pleasing to notice the cohe- 

 sion in thought Avhich at once set in relating organically all 

 plant life. The amassing of knowledge which followed 

 forced the division of labor among botanists a change 

 from homogeneity to heterogeneity. 



In conclusion, there is only time to allude, and in a gen- 

 eral way, to the importance of botany to human life and 

 well-being. If the hearer will let pass in review in his 

 mind all that which contributes to his needs and comfort 

 in his daily life, and select that directly dependent upon 

 our present knowledge of botany, he can better comprehend 

 the importance of this science to his comfort and well-being 

 than words would enable him to do. 



The production of most of our food is the direct result 

 of our knowledge of agricultural botany, while much of our 

 clothing is due to the discovery that the flax and other 

 plants yield a fiber which may be woven into fabrics suitable 

 for a thousand purposes directly increasing our comforts. 

 The greater part of our materia medica that vast number 

 of medicinal bodies which alleviate bodily ailment and con- 

 tribute to the maintenance and prolongation of bodily 

 health is due to our knowledge of the medicinal properties 

 and of the active constituents of plants. Botany is, in 

 short, the underlying basis of much of our wealth and com- 

 fort, and, aside from the aid it affords to horticulture and 

 to the healing art, it claims a large share of the attention of 

 every individual for the moral and intellectual culture which 

 it is capable of imparting in an eminent degree. To the 



