28 INTRODUCTION. 



of science, it is impossible to give the reader a satisfactory 

 answer. All botanists are acquainted with the fact, its 

 philosophy is unknown. Every branch of natural history 

 is more or less in this imperfect condition. Botany is 

 perhaps the most defective. It is in truth very little better 

 than an accumulation of sterile facts. He who studies 

 botany or any other branch of natural history in this, the 

 true philosophical spirit, will not fail of becoming an origi- 

 nal contributor to the department which he undertakes. 

 In the place of a narrow circumscribed science, he will find 

 an immense field, in which the commonest and most insig- 

 nificant weed or animal, will furnish him with innumerable 

 subjects for reflection and study. 



