

INTRODUCTORY INSTRUCTIONS, 



ADAPTED FOR PERSONS 

 COMMENCING 



THE STUDY OF BOTANY. 



BOTANY is the science which enables us to become acquainted 

 with the numerous and diversified vegetable productions with 

 which the Author of Nature has adorned the surface of our 

 globe. These objects, although possessed of life, have a con- 

 stitution very different from that of animals, and their investi- 

 gation in this point of view is extremely interesting ; but the 

 sole object of the present work being to facilitate the acqui- 

 sition of a knowledge of the plants indigenous to Great Britain 

 and Ireland, the reader is referred for an account of the 

 anatomy and physiology of vegetables to the various works 

 which treat entirely or in part of those subjects, and in par- 

 ticular to the " Manual of Botany" recently published by the 

 Editor. Here he will find that kind of elementary knowledge 

 only which will enable him to discover the name of a plant, 

 and by directing his attention to its external form, excite in 

 him a desire to extend his investigation to its internal struc- 

 ture, its relations, and its uses in the economy of nature. 

 When he has rendered himself familiar with the outward ap- 

 pearance of species and their arrangement into genera, he may 

 proceed to a more intimate examination of them, and thus 

 acquire a knowledge of the principles by which they are 

 grouped into natural families. Let no one imagine that, when 

 he has become familiar with the aspect of a plant, learned its 

 name, and observed its place of growth and time of flowering, 



