THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 35 



NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF BOTANY, 



Read before the Hamilton Associalio7t, March ij, iSgo, 

 BY T. J. W. BURGESS, M. B , F. R. S. C, ETC. 



My contribution for your consideration this evening, entitled 

 "' Notes on the History of Botany," is indeed but a few brief notes 

 on the subject. To prepare anything hke a complete history of this 

 charming science, is a task far beyond my ability, and, even were I 

 able to execute it, so extensive is the subject that the listening to it 

 would occupy, not an hour or two, but night after night of your 

 valuable time. 



In every age, in every clime, flowers have ever been regarded 

 as among the most beautiful of the varied works of creation. Scarce 

 a poet but has sung of their beauties — not an artist but has 

 attempted to depict their gorgeous colorings. The sculptor and the 

 architect have sought to render them imperishable in stone, and 

 novelists have woven some of their tenderest fancies about them. 

 Who has not read that sweetest of stories, " Picciola ?" How the 

 leaves of the little flowret, stretching themselves between the harsh 

 prison stones, carried a message of truth and beauty, spoke of mercy 

 and grace, to a despairing soul. Flowers are entwined about our 

 lives, and from the earliest times they have been represented in the 

 social and religious ceremonies of most countries. Children greet 

 them with shouts of joy ; to the bride they are a fitting emblem 

 of a happy future ; and at the tomb kind friends deposit them on 

 the bodies of departed loved ones. Numberless are the lessons to 

 be learned from these beautifiers of the earth, which smile alike upon 

 the peasant and the peer, which bloom equally for the abode of 

 poverty and the home of unlimited luxury. Every herb, ever shrub, 

 every tree is full of interest ; not a plant but has some peculiar 

 beauty or some exquisite adaptation. 



" Your voiceless lips, O Flowers! are living preachers, 

 Each cup a pulpit, every leaf a book, 

 Supplying to my fancy numerous teachers 

 From lonliest nook," 



