CHAPTER II. 



DEFINITION OF NATURAL HISTORY, AND IAR- 

 , TICULARLY BOTANY. OF THE GENERAL TEX- 

 TURE OF PLANTS. 



J\ATURAL History properly signifies that study by 

 which we learn to distinguish from one another the 

 natural bodies, whether Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral, 

 around us; to discover as much as possible their nature 

 and properties, and especially their natural dependence 

 on each other in the general scale of beings. In a more 

 extensive sense it may be said to teach their secondary 

 properties, or the various uses to which they have been, 

 or may be, converted, in the service of mankind or of 

 other animals ; inasmuch as an acquaintance with their 

 natural qualities is our only sure guide to a knowledge 

 of their artificial uses. But as this definition would 

 include many arts and sciences, each of them sufficient 

 to occupy any common mind, as Agriculture, Diete- 

 tics, Medicine, and many others, it is sufficient for a 

 philosophical naturalist to be acquainted with the ge- 

 neral principles upon which such arts and sciences are 

 founded. 



That part of Natural History which concerns plants 

 is called Botany, from BoTccvq, the Greek word for a 

 herb or grass. It may be divided into three branches : 



