ii 
If together with a knowledge of the general structure of plants, and the me- 
thod of grouping them a the easels will ee some degree 
. 
of information respecting their physiol 
be given to the most trifling vhetations of horticnlsniie, far beyond ayes 
which an empirical rule, the result of practice and experience, can possibly sup- 
ply. He may then connect a series of well-directed experiment or observation 
with the commonest routine of garden culture, and may soon lay up a store of 
facts calculated to establish or refute many of the uncertain points in vegetable 
physiology. It is true that greater care and diligence are necessary for con- 
ducting most experiments than Florists are generally inclined to bestow, but 
even without entertaining any such object, a knowledge of those laws of vegeta- 
tion which are already well established, must necessarily increase the intellec- 
tual enjoyments to any one who is attached to gardening pursuits. 
We will venture yet further, and attempt to uphold another important claim — 
which our favourite pursuit possesses upon the general attention. To a mind 
impressed with the belief in the infinite wisdom and goodness of the Creator, 
Botany affords a perpetual source of the very highest description of mental gra- 
tification, in the never-ending proofs it unfolds of an all-pervading intelli- 
gence—in the numberless examples it affords of those marvellous contrivances 
by which means are palpably employed to secure an end—in the striking in- 
stances it exhibits of that universal harmony which prevails between the works 
of God, and of the muiual dependance in which one part of the Creation sub. 
sists with respect to another. These claims have long been acknowledged, and 
the pious and excellent Joha Ray, the father of the modern school of Botanists, 
in his work on the Creation, has offered convincing arguments in support of 
them, derived from the resources at his command more than two hundred years 
ago. Since his day our science has assumed a new garb—almost innumerable 
treasures have been pouring in upon us from every quarter of the globe, and 
physiological, geographical, and fossil, botany are departments of very recent 
birth. If he then could derive arguments in favour of Diyine Wisdom and 
Goodness, from a contemplation of the comparatively scanty materials in his pos- 
session at the period when he was running his earthly career of humility and 
usefulness, we ought not to be backward in avowing and proclaiming the same 
lesson, with our improved demonstration of its truth, now that so much deeper 
insight has been obtained into the general scheme of nature. 
Impressed with these convictions, the Conductor of the Botanist considered 
that a publication of the description which he has h jected, and of which 
