LATE WILLIAM CURTIS. Xv 
the succession of each species! How admirably are they 
adapted to grow in every different soil and situation, so as 
to leave no part of the globe, not even rocks and stones, 
uncovered! With what regular order, and in what con- 
stant succession do they flower and produce their seeds ! 
In short, a person of an inquisitive or contemplative turn, 
will find in plants, an endless source of innocent delight. 
Another world, as it were, opens to his view; he beholds 
the face of nature through a new medium of vision ; and 
has the superior pleasure of being able to read in that 
book, which, to the generality of mankind, is a mere blank. 
The importance of this science, as a branch of Medical 
knowledge, is happily expressed, by the late ingenious Dr. 
Gregory, the ornament of his profession, and, I may add, 
of human nature. In his advice to the young physician, 
he thus delivers his sentiments on this head. ‘ The Science 
of Botany is subservient to the practice of physic as far as 
it facilitates the knowledge of plants, by reducing them 
into the most commodious and perfect system ; and although 
it is not necessary to be particularly acquainted with the 
name and history of every plant, yet every one ought to be 
so well founded in the principles of Botany, as to be able to 
find its place in the system, and to describe it scientifically : 
and we ought to be particularly acquainted with every 
material circumstance relative to those plants which are 
used in medicine.’ 
“ It is, however, to be much regretted, that this pur- 
suit is so little attended to by gentlemen of the faculty in 
this country: hence they are often obliged to depend upon 
the skill of the ignorant and illiterate, for many of their 
efficacious officinal plants, frequently at the expence of 
their own characters, and of all that is valuable to their 
patients. Although newly discovered chemical remedies 
and foreign drugs may have justly superseded many of our 
English plants, yet a great number are still retained in our 
