OUTLINES OF BOTANY. 



INTRODUCTORY DEFINITIONS. 



I. Natural History. 



.NATURAL HISTORY is that science which 

 treats of the productions of nature constituting the 

 globe we inhabit, as they come from tiie hands. of the 

 Creator. 



It is generally divided into three branches. 



1. Zoology, which includes all animals. 



2. Botany, which treats of plants. 



3. Mineralogy 9 which includes the unorganized mass 

 of our globe ; as earths, rocks, ores, &c. 



Observation. 1. These are called the three kingdoms of nature. 



2 A fourth branch has been added: Aerology t which includes 

 the atmosphere and whatever floats in it 



3. Animals are nourished by vegetables, and vegetables by 

 minerals ; thus do plants, by tuking up unorganized matter 

 from the mineral kingdom and converting it into nutriment for 

 the animal kingdom, form an indispensable link between them. 



BOTANY is a word derived from the Greek Botane 

 grass. It is applied to that branch "of natural science 

 which teaches us the relations, properties, and general 

 economy of the vegetable kingdom, and at tiie same 

 time by presenting the innumerable individuals of 

 which this kingdom consists in a form of arrangement 

 that brings them easily within the reach of our compre- 

 hension, enables us in practice both to designate them 

 by their proper names, and to avail ourselves of what 

 is known concerning their medicinal or economical 

 uses. Encijc. 

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