Vol. X.-No. 31. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



243 



the first really systematic writer is Ray, whose syn- 

 opsis was published in 1677, and is, strictly speak- 

 ing, a systematic work, having an iirrangemeiil 

 into classes, genera, and species, — though in this res- 

 pect still very imporlect. His classes are founded 

 on such indefinite distinctions as trees and shrubs ; 

 ills genera are formed upon sucli characters as the 

 shape of the leaf, color, taste, suioll, and even size. 

 His nomenclature is of such a foruiidahle and re- 

 pulsive character that none but the most studious 

 and laborious would ever undertake to master it. 

 It seems incredible to a young botanist, accustom- 

 ed to the concise precision of the present <lay, 

 which renders his study inviting even to the care- 

 less, the indolent, and the fashionable, that a pupil 

 of Ray, when he mentioned a plant, was obliged to 

 repeat, often, a line and a half of Latin description, 

 — which, as Miss Kent observes, would sound 

 much more like an incantation than a name. We 

 can imagine the overwhelming astonishment, with 

 which the vulgar and the genteel ignorant must 

 have listened, when he was pouring out these ' ses- 

 quipedalia verba,' to designate a common weed. 

 Well may we excuse them for replying, when urg- 

 ed to partake of tlie pleasures of such a study, 

 'The kernel of your nut, for aught we know, may 

 be very sweet, but the shell is too hard for us to 

 crack.' 



Again, so long as tlie mind remained occupi- 

 ed in no other manner than the acquisition of 

 new plants, without knowing in what way to appre- 

 ciate their respective peculiarities, discoveries con- 

 tinued to be made slowly, and to be of little value 

 when made. As soon, however, as botanists arriv- 

 ed at the art of arranging upon philosopliical prin- 

 ciples, the materials they possessed, their attention 

 was strongly directed towards supporting their re- 

 spective systems by the addition of new objects 

 and new facts ; and the strenuous investigations, 

 instituted on this account, naturally brought them 

 acquainted with an aliuiidance of subjects, the ex- 

 istence of which the imperfection of their previous 

 knowledge could not have led them to suspect. 



The following statistics will place this in a 

 strong light. The entire Flora of Homer amounts 

 to less than thirty species. In the Holy Bible, ac- 

 cording to Sprengel, seventyone plants are noticed 

 by najne ; and two hundred and seventyfour are 

 spoken of by Hippocrates, who was born four hun- 

 dred and fifty years before Christ. Theophrastus, 

 of about the same period, whose work is the first 

 expressly devoted to plants of which we have any 

 knowledge, enumerates somewhat less than five 

 hundred. Three humlred years later, or about the 

 time of Cleopatra, Dioscorides notices nearly seven 

 hundred ; and Pliny, in the first Christian century, 

 gives an account, collected, as he says, from more 

 than two thousand Greek and Roman writers, of 

 about one thousand .sjiecies, — the results of the in- 

 vestigations of forty centuries ! Forfuurteen hun- 

 dred years after I'liny, an increase of only five hun- 

 dred new species is allowed ; but in the next two 

 centuries, when the knowledge of plants was as- 

 suming a scientific form, upwards of four thousand 

 five hundred m.'w plants vere added to the cata- 

 logue ; — a number four times greater than had 

 been ascertained in all the preceding ages of 

 the world. So extraordinary was the advance of 

 botany under the auspices of LinnsBus, that, in a 

 few years, fifteen hundred other plants were add- 

 ed to the list ; and the whole number, actually de- 

 scribed at the time of his death in 1778, was 

 between eleven and twelve thousand. But since 



that period, the increase has been so prodigious, 

 that the number of species of all descriptions now 

 known, according to an estimate given in a late 

 journal, is not less tlian one hundred thousand ! 



Such has been the effect of system on Botany — 

 or, at least, such an efiect never could have been 

 pioduced without it. Tlie mere Linnsean nomen- 

 clature is a gigantic effort, and itself a wonderful 

 instrument of order and perspicuity. In Chemis- 

 try, where there is not a tenth part of the iiulivi- 

 dual objects to be specified that there is in Botany, 

 the advantages of nomenclature have been most 

 remarkable in promoting facility of investigation 

 and clearness of description ; and we find, that 

 not only all the divisions of Natural History, but 

 several other sciences, to which the system of ar- 

 rangement and designation established by Linnae- 

 us have been applied, advanced with a rapidity 

 and e.xtent, irresistibly conclusive as to its power 

 and efficacy. It therefore only remains for me to 

 demonstrate the dependence of Horticulture, sci- 

 entifically pursued, upon Natural History, and I 

 trust I shall have acquitted myself of the first part 

 of my engagement ; as to the second part, if the 

 causes which obstruct the progress of gardening 

 are once well understood, the way to obviate them 

 will be too plain to require expatiating upon. 



Natural History, in its broadest acceptation, en-- 

 braces a knowledge and description of all the ob- 

 jects in the material universe. In this sense it 

 will include the heavenly bodies and their pheno- 

 mena. These, however, though in some respects 

 matters of observation, are yet so completely sub- 

 servient to the laws of mechanics, and the mode of 

 stirdying them is so diflferent from what he is usual- 

 ly accustomed to, that the naturalist long ago 

 abandoned them to the astronomer. And since 

 the abolition of the laws of judicial astrology, the 

 gardener is content with knowing the cause of the 

 seasons, and of day and night ; resting satisfied in 

 their being immutable, and that the devices of man 

 can never vary their order or their influence. 



Meteorology, for somewhat similar reasons, has 

 also been conmionly excluded from the pale of 

 Natural History. But this science, in its whole 

 extent, has a most important bearing upon vegeta- 

 ble culture. Water and air are the very blood 

 and breath of life to plants. The different states 

 of the atmosphere as indicated by the barometer, 

 thermometer, hygrometer and electrometer ; — the 

 action of light and heat, whether solar or artificial, 

 whether accumulated or diminished, whetiier ap- 

 plied after long or short intervals ; — the influence 

 of the different winds, and the effects of exposure 

 to or protection from them ; — the phenomena of 

 clouds, fog, dew, frost, rain, snow, and hail, are 

 among the subjects which, most nearly affect the 

 operations of the gardener, and whose nature and 

 powers it behooves him thoroughly to under- 

 stand. 



But some of the first considerations demanding 

 his attention relate to the materials of which the 

 surface of the earth, on which he operates, is com- 

 posed. The necessity of an acquaintance with 

 Mineralogy is here manifest ; — preparatory for 

 which a knowledge of Chemistry is requisite, as 

 well as for the analysis and composition of soils, 

 and also of vegetable products. Next, it will soon 

 be found that the properties of soils vary not only 

 with the elevation and aspect of the surface, but 

 are also greatly modified by the nature of the rocky 

 or other strata on which they rest, or with which 



they are in any way associated. Hence, he, who 

 would most successfully cultivate them, must know 

 something of Geology, a vast and exceedingly in- 

 teresting field of in(|uiry, as yet but iuqierfectly 

 explored, and the importance of which to agricul- 

 ture and arboriculture is but beginning to be pro- 

 perly appreciated To know the kind of plant 

 which can be most profitably cultivated on a given 

 s<iil, is one thing ; but to prepare a soil lor the 

 best culture of a given kind of plant, demands 

 other and much more complicated considerations. 

 Indeed two of the chief points in the gardener's 

 art consist in the accommodatipn of the soil to the 

 nature of the plant, and in teiiching the plant to 

 accommodate itself to the soil and climate. 



So nnmereiis and intimate are the reciprocal 

 relations between the .animal and the vegetable 

 kingdom, that no one of them can be thoroughly 

 understood without a pretty full acquaintance with 

 the other. Hence, a knowledge of Zoology^ Or- 

 7iitholosy, and Entomology must prove of high utili- 

 ty to the gardener; enabling him to distinguish 

 those quadrupeds, birds, and insects, which are 

 friendly, from those which are inimical to his inter- 

 ests ; for it is only by accurately discriminating 

 their kinds, and by studying their natures and 

 habits, that he can avail himself of the services of 

 one, or protect himself from the depredations of the 

 other. 



There is no one class, in whose success the in- 

 terests of mankind are so much involved, as in that 

 of the cultivators of the soil. By this I mean, that, 

 as food is the first necessary of life, and fine fruit 

 one ofits greatest luxuries, every question which 

 concerns their production deserves serious atten~ 

 tion. 



Now it is well known that, every year, some un- 

 expected failure of crops, originating in the rava- 

 ges of the insect world, takes place ; — that the la- 

 bors of the farmer, and the hopes of the orchardist 

 and florist are continually destroyed by these mi- 

 nute and subtle enemies ; and that, often, local 

 scarcity, and sometimes individual ruin, is the re- 

 sult. With these evils upon record, and continual- 

 ly coming under our notice in one form or another, 

 any one would fancy that tliis portion of Natural 

 History, at least, had been well studied ;— that the 

 forms and appearances, the habits and economy of 

 all these scourges of vegetation had been well in- 

 vestigated and distinctly described. But, incredi- 

 ble as it may appear, no work professing to give 

 the horticulturist a right knowledge of the animals, 

 birds, insects, reptiles or worms, useful or injurious 

 to his labors, exists in our langunge ! 



It mostly happens, when a naturalist is applied 

 to for information on such points, by those who are 

 the immediate sufferers, and he begins to put the 

 question which alone can enable him to form an 

 opinion, he can seldom make out whether the thing 

 complained of is a beetle, a fly, or a moth. He is 

 told that ' it may have only two wings, though 

 possibly it has more ;' 'it may have very short' 

 wings, but perhaps none at all ;' and generally the 

 sum total that can be positively ascertained is that 

 ' the creature looks very much like a grub.' 

 To becoiitiDued, 



Sir Astley Cooper's Chilblain Ointment. — Take 

 one ounce of camphorated spirit of wine ; half an 

 ounce of the liquor of subacetate of lead. — Mix 

 and apply in the usual way three or four times a 

 day. It is very efficacious. 



