248 NATURAL HISTORY 



Nature would be a pathless wilderness ; but system should 

 be subservient to, not the main object of, pursuit. 



Vegetation is highly worthy of our attention; and in 

 itself is of the utmost consequence to mankind, and produc- 

 tive of many of the greatest comforts and elegancies of life. 

 To plants we owe timber, bread, beer, honey, wine, oil, 

 linen, cotton, &c., what not only strengthens our hearts and 

 exhilarates our spirits, but what secures us from inclemencies 

 of weather, and adorns our persons. Man, in his true state 

 of nature, seems to be subsisted by spontaneous vegetation ; 

 in middle climes, where grasses prevail, he mixes some 

 animal food with the produce of the field and garden ; and 

 it is towards the polar extremes only that, like his kindred 

 bears and wolves, he gorges himself with flesh alone, and is 

 driven, to what hunger has never been known to compel the 

 very beasts, to prey on his own species. 1 



The productions of vegetation have had a vast influence 

 on the commerce of nations, and have been the great pro- 

 moters of navigation, as may be seen in the articles of 

 sugar, tea, tobacco, opium, ginseng, betel, paper, &c. As 

 every climate has its peculiar produce, our natural wants 

 bring on a mutual intercourse ; so that by means of trade 

 each distant part is supplied with the growth of every lati- 

 tude. But without the knowledge of plants and their cul- 

 ture, we must have been content with our hips and haws, 

 without enjoying the delicate fruits of India, and the salu- 

 tiferous drugs of Peru. 



Instead of examining the minute distinctions of every 

 various species of each obscure genus, the botanist should 

 endeavour to make himself acquainted with those that are 

 useful. You shall see a man readily ascertain every herb of 

 the field, yet hardly know wheat from barley, or at least one 

 sort of wheat or barley from another. 



But of all sorts of vegetation the grasses seem to be most 

 neglected ; neither the farmer nor the grazier seem to dis- 

 tinguish the annual from the perennial, the hardy from the ten- 

 der, nor the succulent and nutritive from the dry and juiceless. 



1 See the late voyages to the South Seas. G. W. 



