42 ON THE STUDY OF 



highly delightful and instructive; and with this 

 I proposed to have taken a particular view of 

 the classification of the vegetable kingdom ac- 

 cording to the system of Linnaeus, and which in 

 the familiar acceptation of the term, has been 

 denominated botany. But this, considering the 

 advanced hour at which we are arrived, 1 must 

 leave to some other occasion ; and briefly ob- 

 serve, that the vegetable kingdom, of which an 

 enlarged botany (for we do not confine our mean- 

 ing of that term to a mere classification and no- 

 menclature of plants,) may be considered the 

 history, if taken in all its comprehensiveness 

 and capabilities, is one of the most important and 

 useful subjects, to which the human mind can be 

 directed. For without the vegetable world, how 

 should we obtain our food and our clothing, both 

 of which directly or indirectly depend upon the 

 supplies which vegetation affords? Or what 

 would become of our agriculture and our com- 

 merce, our architecture, and all those very nume- 

 rous arts, which, while they afford employment 

 to our population, contribute to those wants and 

 conveniences, not to say luxuries, which in the 

 present state of society have been rendered so 

 necessary ; or how should we supply the place 

 of many of those valuable remedies, which in the 

 hour of sickness preserve our lives, or at least 

 serve to mitigate our bodily sufferings, if deprived 

 of this most comprehensive resource ? 



