3?6 OF THE PRIMARY PRINCIPLES OF VEGETABLES. 



supposes a competent acquaintance with the ele- 

 ments of chemistry ; and the former points out the 

 necessity of a strict and scrupulous analysis of the 

 several compound ingredients constituting the fabric 

 of the plant, or contained within it. The method 

 therefore of analysing such compound ingredients 

 with a view to the ascertaining of their ultimate 

 principles, and of extracting them from the plant 

 where they do not spontaneously present themselves, 

 together with a brief account of their principal pro- 

 perties, as also of their several uses, shall constitute 

 the subject of the two following divisions ; not how- 

 ever with a view to teach the very difficult art of 

 vegetable analysis, which is the province of the 

 practical chemist, but rather to exhibit such a 

 sketch of that analysis and its results as may serve 

 to give to the phytological novice a glimpse of what 

 he is yet to study more profoundly ; and may be 

 acceptable and useful even to the botanical student 

 who has no desire to become a practical analysist. 



