HISTORY AND SCIENCE OF GARDENING. Ill 



Botany^ which has respect to their uses as medicinal, economical, 

 and edible. In accordance with this' view their study is arranged 

 as follows : the history, glossology, phytography, taxonomy, or- 

 ganology, anatomy, chemistry, physiology, pathology, geography, 

 and culture. 



The History of the study of plants is coeval with the human 

 race. The first who wrote much upon the subject was Pythagoras ; 

 to him succeeded Anaxagoras, Hippocrates, Theophrastus, Virgil, 

 Dioscorides, and Pliny. The first attempt to arrange plants in 

 classes and oi'ders was made by Gesuer, a native of Switzerland, in 

 the sixteenth century. Various other systems were proposed, but 

 it was not until that of Linnaeus appeared that a satisfactory 

 classification was devised. This, however, was an artificial 

 system, and it was thought by many, including Linnseus himself, 

 who published the idea in the latter part of his life, that if a natural 

 method could be devised it would supersede the artificial. The 

 foundation of such a system was laid by Bernard Jussieu, a 

 Frenchman, and it was completed by his nephew, A. L. Jussieu. 



Glossology m&.y be defined as the grammar of plants, referring 

 to the names by which they are distinguished and the terms 

 necessary to designate their various parts with accuracy. 



Phytography relates to the nomenclature of plants. The vege- 

 table kingdom is divided into classes, orders, genera, and species ; 

 a class being distinguished by some peculiar character common in 

 plants ; an order by some character limited to a few plants 

 belonging to a class ; a more limited character constitutes a genus, 

 and a species is a division of a genus, which by particular marks, 

 as well as by the laws of nature, cannot be joined to any other 

 than the one from which it originated ; a variety is a deviation 

 from a species, and a sub-variety a slight deviation from a variety. 

 Thus the apple, according to the Linnsean system, belongs to the 

 class Icosandria, order Pentagynia, genus Pyrus, and species malus, 

 which is the crab apple. The cultivated apple is a variety, and a 

 sub-variety designates the particular kind, as the Russet, Pearmain, 

 etc. All names must be derived from the Latin or Greek, or they 

 would soon be confounded, as every nation has a vernacular name. 



Taxonomy is the classification of plants, without which the mind 

 of man would be unequal to the task of acquiring an idea of the 

 vegetable kingdom, but with it almost any one may attain a correct 

 knowledge of plants. 



