PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 71 



tions arbitrarily imposed by man. A primeval flora is usually 

 more ricb in indigenous species, but the artificial changes caused 

 by cultivation often offset this to a great extent by the introduc- 

 tion of foreign ones. This, however, greatly reduces its botanical 

 interest. 



In many respects the botanist looks at the world from a point of 

 view precisely the reverse of that of other people. Rich fields of 

 corn are to him waste lands ; cities are his abhorrence, and great 

 areas under high cultivation he calls "poor country;" while on the 

 other hand the impenetrable forest delights his gaze, the rocky cliff 

 charms him, thin-soiled barrens, boggy fens, and unreclaimable 

 swamps and morasses are for him the finest lands in a State. He 

 takes no delight in the " march of civilization ;" the ax and the 

 plow are to him symbols of barbarism, and the reclaiming of waste 

 lands and opening up of his favorite haunts to cultivation he in- 

 stinctively denounces as acts of vandalism. In him more than in 

 any other class of mankind the poet's injunction — 



" Woodman, spare that tree," 



touches a responsive cord. While all this may seem as absurd to 

 some as does the withholding from tillage of great pleasure grounds 

 in the form of hunting parks for the landed sporting gentry of 

 Northern and Western Europe, still, when these parts of the world 

 are compared with the artificially made deserts of Southeastern 

 Europe and Western Asia, caused by the absence of such senti- 

 ments, there may, perhaps, be dimly recognized a " soul of good 

 in things evil," if not a soul of wisdom in things ridiculous. 



After the protracted subjection of a country to the conditions of 

 civilization it gradually comes about that while the greater part of 

 the surface falls under cultivation, more or less thorough, and the 

 botanist is ultimately excluded from it, there will remain a few 

 favored spots, which, from one cause or another, will escape and 

 continue to form his favorite haunts. In the vicinity of large 

 rivers, giving greater variety to the surface, or of rugged hills or 

 mountains, this will be especially the case. As a country grows 

 old large estates in the vicinity of cities fall into the possession of 

 heirs who are engaged in mercantile or professional business, and 

 neglect them, or they come into litigation lasting for years, and are 

 thus happily abandoned to nature. These and other causes have 

 operated in an especial manner in the surroundings of Washington, 



