4 INTRODUCTION. 



beauty of the external forms of Plants is surpassed by that of 

 their internal structure ; and the investigation of the latter is 

 more easy than that of animals, besides being unattended with 

 many drawbacks which must elsewhere be encountered. The 

 objects of the Physiologist are never out of reach ; for barren 

 indeed must be that country, which affords no shelter to the pro- 

 ducts of the Vegetable Kingdom. The meanest and most com- 

 mon herbs are, in his eyes, as interesting as the majestic tree or 

 the rarest flower. The toilsome labours of the Collector, who 

 seeks to bring together in his cabinet as large a number as pos- 

 sible of the different tribes of plants existing on the surface of the 

 globe, are not required by him ; nor is his mind fatigued by the 

 difficulties and technicalities of classification. And what ren- 

 ders the pursuit of this branch of Natural History peculiarly 

 adapted to the female sex, is its freedom from the necessity of 

 that corporeal suffering, which, however laudable its ultimate 

 objects, the truly humane will always dread to inflict upon beings 

 that have feelings like their own. 



The object of the following Treatise will be, therefore, to lead 

 those who may be disposed to adopt our recommendation, to a 

 pursuit which cannot fail to prove a source of interest and im- 

 provement. It will be adapted as much as possible to such as 

 have no previous information on the subject, beyond that which 

 all young persons of ordinary capacity may gain by themselves ; 

 and it will omit, therefore, several topics of high but less general 

 interest, which those who feel inclined to examine them will find 

 fully treated elsewhere. 



Wherever circumstances are compatible with Vegetable exist- 

 ence, there we find plants arise. It is not only on the luxuriant 

 soil, on which many generations have flourished and decayed, 

 that we find the display of their beauties. The coral island, but 

 recently elevated above the level of the sea, speedily becomes 

 clothed with verdure. From the materials of the most sterile 



