1858.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 883 



these consists merely in subjective conviction and arrangement, is as in- 

 consistent with my views, as that Nature created only individual species, 

 from which all the others have gradually sprung. A. N. 



Nasturtium officinale 



Fails in a large circle round Clent, in Worcestershire. Except where 

 planted, it appears nowhere for miles, although there is plenty of water in 

 this tract. Professor Koch states that it is not found in Silesia, and that 

 Teucrium Scorodonia is not found in Upper Bavaria, nor in Bohemia, nor 

 in Silesia. The Professor says, "At least it does not appear in the Floras 

 of these countries." A. N. 



From the ' Times.' 



Sir, — As a subscriber of many years' standing to your invaluable paper, 

 I claim the privilege of an old acquaintance to request your insertion of 

 the following, should you consider it worthy of a corner in the 'Times.' On 

 New Year's morning I cut from a Magnolia-tree in my garden a splendid 

 flower, the last of many on the same tree during the past season. I have 

 also gathered within the past fortnight upwards of a dozen Roses from 

 one Devoniensis Eose-tree ; both trees growing in the open air perfectly 

 unsheltered. William Ford. 



Yealmpton, Devon, Jan. 4, 1858, 



Importance of Botany. 



The following is an extract from an Address by Dr. Cleghorn to the 

 native graduates in medicine educated in the Medical CoUege of Madras. 



" I would urge you not to neglect the daily study of diseases themselves, 

 as the foundation of all practical medical science. I find a prevailing evil 

 everywhere is to give undue attention to reading, and not enough to ob- 

 servation, dissecting, and analysis. 



" I may give by way of illustration the questions frequently put to me in 

 my own department, which run thus : — -1. Which are the best text-books 

 on Botany? and then, 3. How ami to become a Botanist ? The first ques- 

 tion is easily answered ; to the second I reply in this manner. I would 

 urge upon you the daily devoting of a few minutes, when you cannot spare 

 more, to the task of describing, curtly but logically, one or more speci- 

 mens of wild plants. This is admirable mental discipline, and is one of 

 the greatest uses of Botany as a branch of Education. Botany is essen- 

 tially a science of observation, in which practice alone ensures success. It 

 is exactly the same in medical practice. 



"A man who would improve himself, must daily watch and carefully re- 

 cord his cases ; he must go to the root of the matter, and consider the ex- 

 citing cause of the mischief and the vital forces whose results he witnesses, 

 and then, taking into one view all his observations and all his inferences, 

 he seeks to form a connected picture of the whole, and to apply such re- 

 medies as will meet the various exigencies of the case, subduing excessive 

 action, stimulating that which is weak, and correcting that which is pecu- 

 liar or perverted." 



