Bibliography. 389 



servation and comparison may find the most interesting employment, 

 and all his reasoning powers be exercised according to the strictest 

 rules of logic and philosophy. The investigation of the true charac- 

 ters of plants will conduct him at once to a just estimate of their pro- 

 perties, and enable him to judge correctly of their economical value ; 

 so that while he is indulging in the pleasures of science for their own 

 sake, he may at the same time silence the cavillings of the mere utili- 

 tarian, by demonstrating the practical importance of true scientific at- 

 tainments. This is one of the eminent advantages resulting from an 

 intimate knowledge of vegetable structure and physiology, and from 

 the study of those natural affinities which suggest the grouping of 

 plants into families or orders ; and such are the advantages which 

 may be confidently expected from the general introduction and proper 

 use of the Botanical Text Book, in the many respectable seminaries of 

 learning in the United States. 



The principles on which the vegetable kingdom is classified, or ar- 

 ranged into natural families, are briefly but lucidly exhibited, in the 

 second part of the work ; and cannot fail to be perfectly intelligible 

 to every inquiring mind. When the botanical student shall have be- 

 come familiar with the elementary truths so ably set forth in this Text 

 Book, he will have only to provide himself with a copy of the Flora 

 of North America^ (now in process of publication by the same author, 

 in conjunction with his accomplished friend, Prof. Tokrey,) and dili- 

 gently to consult the pages of that inestimable work, in order to know 

 and appreciate the vegetable treasures distributed over the vast terri- 

 tory, extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic seas. With 

 such aids, and such attractive inducements to a rational acquaintance 

 with the vegetable creation, it may be fairly calculated that the study 

 of botany in our country will soon be adapted to the actual condition 

 of the science ; and that its votaries will not only multiply in number, 

 but be enabled to vindicate its claims to the rank of a truly useful and 

 philosophical pursuit. 



The writer of these hasty and desultory remarks, is unwilling to 

 conclude without manifesting his sincere gratification at the recent ap- 

 pointment of the author of the Botanical Text Book to the Fisher Pro- 

 fessorship of Natural History in Harvard University. It is a distinction 

 as richly merited as it was honorably conferred ; and while we may 

 hope that the situation will afford the incumbent many facilities to pros- 

 ecute his botanical labors with increased advantage, it will not be de- 

 nied that the Trustees of Harvard have been both sagacious and fortu- 

 nate in securing, for their venerable institution, the services of the new 

 Professor of Natural History. W. D. 



