OF SELBORNE. 325 



known to compel the very beasts, to prey on his own 

 species 1 . 



The productions of vegetation have had a vast influ- 

 ence on the commerce of nations, and have been the 

 great promoters of navigation, as may be seen in the 

 articles of sugar, tea, tobacco, opium, ginseng, betel, 

 paper, &c. As every climate has its peculiar produce, 

 our natural wants bring on a mutual intercourse ; so that 

 by means of trade each distant part is supplied with the 

 growth of every latitude. But, without the knowledge 

 of plants and their culture, we must have been content 

 with our hips and haws, without enjoying the delicate 

 fruits of India and the salutiferous drugs of Peru. 



Instead of examining the minute distinctions of every 

 various species of each obscure genus, the botanist 

 should endeavour to make himself acquainted with 

 those that are useful. You shall see a man readily 

 ascertain every herb of the field, yet hardly know wheat 

 from barley, or at least one sort of wheat or barley 

 from another. 



But of all sorts of vegetation the grasses seem to be 

 most neglected ; neither the farmer nor the grazier seem 

 to distinguish the annual from the perennial, the hardy 

 from the tender, nor the succulent and nutritive from 

 the dry and juiceless. 



The study of grasses would be of great consequence 

 to a northerly and grazing kingdom. The botanist that 

 could improve the sward of the district where he lived, 

 would be a useful member of society : to raise a thick 

 turf on a naked soil would be worth volumes of syste- 

 matic knowledge ; and he would be the best common- 

 wealth's man that could occasion the growth of " two 

 blades of grass where one alone was seen before 2 ." 



I am, &c. 



1 See the late voyages to the South Seas. 



2 A contribution worthy of a nobleman of the highest rank and most 

 extensive possessions, has been made to the knowledge of the agricul- 

 turist and to the wants of civilized man, by the Duke of Bedford, whose 



