10 PHILOSOPHICAL XOTES ON 



as a rule, proceed analytically and inductiyely, proceeding from 

 aboye downwards." ..." It is not only permissible, but in the 

 highest degree adyantageous, for the different spheres of 

 phenomena to be attacked simultaneously." 



What has, for instance, made the science of Paloeontology ? 

 It is the theories that haye knit together and liaye giyen lift to 

 those dry bones, shells, and imprints that made it. The theory 

 makes one see the deyelopment of the li\dng phenomena, of which 

 those specimens are the isolated relics. 



Hypotheses, theories, and philosophies are not made to order, 

 but they grow in men's minds, out of cogitation on facts. 

 Philosophy is tlie soul of our knowledge, while the facts are the 

 raw materials, hypotheses and theories being the glue and 

 fashioning implements. 



Fortunate will that future student be who, when he comes to 

 the thinking age, and begins to ponder on the problems of life, 

 in addition to books upon books of words, will find some one 

 which may contain the liying soul of all botanical knowledge — 

 a Philosophy of Plants. Although with an intense passion for 

 plants, in my students' days, botany, for want of a philosophy of 

 plants, appeared to me a chaos of words, which came into my 

 mind without any cohesion, many of which Ayeut out agam 

 without leaying behind anything that I could utilise. 



Perhaps, with the help of Darwin and his fellow eyolutionists, 

 we may yet see this interesting branch of human knowledge 

 emerge Ayholly out of the bondage of metaphysics and Ayords. 

 We may yet see that in the myriads of foliage forms, flower 

 colours, and fruit deliciousness, there is a unity, simple enough, 

 when put before the student in simple language. 



A philosophy of plants means a broad surAcy of the whole 

 yegetable kingdom, and therefore much of the source of informa- 

 tion must of necessity be second-hand, for it is out of the question 

 that one's own obseryations and researches alone can be sufficient 

 to form a basis of such a broad survey. 



I am aware that there are many weak points in these notes, but 

 for the present they must go as they are. 



Of these speculations and suggestions some, perhaps, are 

 sufficiently worked out ; others may bo still in the nebular stage 

 of deyelopment. 



