IMPORTANCE OF CLOSE OBSERVATION. 333 



the epidendric poison was at the roots ; and never 

 did dry rot consume a beam of bad oak more cer- 

 tainly, or even more rapidly, than all the fair pro- 

 mises of future forests were swept from those 

 moors. In a whole mile a clown cannot now find 

 a rude walking stick ; and even the little grove 

 by the ruined fortalice has departed without axe 

 or fire, and the ruins are as bare as ever. 



Innumerable instances of the same kind might 

 be given, all tending to show that we have " much 

 to learn," and therefore must observe much be- 

 fore we come to any certain general conclusion, 

 about the germination and the growth of vege- 

 tables. But vegetables are, as it were, the foun- 

 dations of our whole cultivated productions, as 

 without them we could neither have animals nor 

 implements. Hence, if we are to have any claim 

 to the title of useful observers, we must so observe 

 as to keep those general relations always in view. 

 It is not enough that we see a beautiful flower, or 

 any other attractive appearance ; and that we give 

 it a name, local or learned, and set down every 

 particular in the form and arrangement of its 

 parts, the tints of its colour, its taste, its odour, 

 the time of its appearance, the length of its con- 

 tinuance, and the period at which it is gone. All 

 that is but an amplification of the name a re- 

 solving of that into those parts of the sum of which 

 in their union it is the sign ; for, if we understand 

 the name, it will bring all those particulars to our 

 recollection. To take a simple instance, the 

 name " daisy," will suggest to the mind all the 

 observable properties of that flower, which are 

 known to the person by whom that name is pro- 

 nounced, whether it be restricted to the little 



