1857.] ON PROGRESS. 127 



classes, as the case iu Ross-sliire plainly shows : the parties who 

 suffered from eating Monkshood for Horse-radish were gentle- 

 men of the more elevated and instructed grades of society. 

 We look to the active intelligent young men now training for 

 the honourable and useful profession of public instructors, to free 

 us fi'om the danger and reproach of inability to distinguish be- 

 tween salutary and noxious plants. 



One of the victims of ignorance had been, it appears, " in the 

 habit of eating simple roots," a fatal habit for him, and its fatal 

 termination should be a warning to others. It is always danger- 

 ous to tamper with unknown objects. There are many plants 

 virulently poisonous in every part ; some are so in some parts : 

 but every suspicious plant should be avoided. We could give a 

 description of Water Hemlock, but it would be of no use ; for all 

 our readers are either sufficiently acquainted with the plant and 

 its nature, or they know that the Order to which the plant be- 

 longs contains many plants dangerous to those that eat them, 

 and many positively poisonous. We most seriously recommend 

 such a knowledge of botany as would be a preventive of similar 

 disasters, to form a part of the instruction given at every school, 

 whether such be established for the higher or the lower ranks of 

 people. 



ON PROGRESS. 



The ' Phytologist,' like every other periodical which enlarges 

 the boundaries of human knowledge, is the advocate of progress. 

 Progress is however twofold in its nature. It may either be pro- 

 moted by adding to the height of the pyramid by which know- 

 ledge may be represented, or by increasing the altitude, and at 

 the same time enlarging the area of the base. Progress consists 

 in the spread of science, as well as in its accumulation. And in 

 order to make science effective as an educational means, or, in 

 more general terms, in order to make it conducive to the improve- 

 ment and well-being of the greatest number, it must be spread 

 horizontally as well as be elevated or accumulated vertically. Our 

 ardent wish is to make this Journal instrumental in diffusing a 

 knowledge of botany in general among the masses, even among 

 those who are deterred by the difficulties which beset the very 

 alphabet of science. 



