BOTANY. 



a pathless wilderness but system should be 

 subservient to, not the main object of, pursuit. 



Vegetation is highly worthy of our attention, 

 and in itself is of the utmost consequence to 

 mankind, and productive of many of the greatest 

 comforts and elegancies of life. To plants we 

 owe timber, bread, beer, honey, wine, oil, linen, 

 cotton, &c. what not only strengthens our 

 hearts, and exhilarates our spirits, but what 

 secures us from inclemencies of weather and 

 adorns our persons. Man, in his true state of 

 nature, seems to be subsisted by spontaneous 

 vegetation ; in middle climes, where grasses pre- 

 vail, he mixes some animal food with the produce 

 of the field and garden ; and it is towards 

 the polar extremes only that, like his kindred 

 bears and wolves, he gorges himself with flesh 

 alone, and is driven to what hunger has never 

 been known to compel the very beasts to prey 

 upon his own species 1 . 



The productions of vegetation have had a vast 

 influence 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, pepper, &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, 



1 See the late voyages to the South Seas. 



