ON VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 95 



every solid article of luxury and convenience 

 which the ingenuity of man could devise. 



Advancing in our acquaintance with vege- 

 tables, we are enabled to extract from plants 

 and trees, a vast variety of substances which 

 contribute to our wants or mitigate our suf- 

 ferings, which give an impulse to our industry, 

 or which form the best sinews of our commerce. 

 Thus, independently of their indirect operation 

 as affording sustenance to various graminivorous 

 animals, by which we obtain our cattle, and from 

 them our hides, our wool, our leather, our candles, 

 our butchers' meat, and the various articles of 

 our dairy ; and to the insect tribe, through which 

 we procure our honey and wax, one of our finest 

 colours, and our silks in all its varieties: they 

 directly supply us with our oils of commerce and 

 of medicine; our gums and valuable woods ; our 

 corn for our own use, and food for our cattle; 

 our table vegetables and fruits; our wines, foreign 

 and domestic; our malt and spirituous liquors; 

 our tea, coffee, sugar, rice, and all our farina- 

 ceous articles of nourishment; our flax, hemp, 

 and cordage for our vessels; the greatest propor- 

 tion of our most valuable medicines ; and in a 

 few words, with almost every article that can be 

 useful to man, or through which our wants can 

 in the greatest degree, be supplied. And if, to 

 these considerations, we add the domestic tendency 

 which an improved knowledge of vegetation has 

 introduced; as evinced by the taste displayed in 



