600 Imjportance of the Studt^ of 



and have eyes, can be considei'ed real tubers ; Tropas^oliim tube- 

 rosum, T. tricolorum, T. pentaphylluni, Helianthus tuberosus, 

 &c. The enlarged roots of the Scitaminaceae, of Cyrill«, and 

 Trevirana, are only, in fact, proliferous side roots ; the bent 

 knobby root of Gloriosa proceeds from an underground stem, 

 but can only produce a bud at one end of it. The roots of 

 Batatas, Gloxinm, Gesner«, Dahha, &c., are merely enlarged 

 roots, and, when divided, must have a part of the neck, or collar, 

 of the root attached, which alone has the property of producing 

 buds. 



( To be continued. ) 



Art. IV. On the Importance of the Studi/ of Natural History to 

 Gardeners. By Peter Mackenzie. 



Few will deny but that the study of natural history is advan- 

 tageous to all who engage in it, but more especially to the 

 gardener : to him it is of solid benefit, without bringing into 

 account the unalloyed delights that accompany the study of the 

 design, and order, and balance, that are to be found in the wide 

 field of created objects. This is a subject that has been recom- 

 mended in this Magazine from its commencement to the present 

 time, and I hope that it will never be lost sight of while this 

 periodical exists, and may that be as long as the present order 

 of things remains ! Every department of natural history has its 

 admirers and cultivators; the time has gone past when it was 

 held in low estimation ; and the means are daily increasing 

 whereby we may be made acquainted with the gigantic and 

 minute objects that abound upon our world. The facilities that 

 now exist enable man to proceed in the way of knowledge at a 

 rate unknown to those who have gone before us, and we must 

 have ourselves to blame if we do not lay hold of the oppor- 

 tunities that are offered for our help. 



The zoological systems of Linnaeus and Cuvier place man at 

 the head of the whole arrangement : in the one he is found in 

 the order Primates, genus Homo; in the other he occupies 

 alone the order Bimana. This part of natural history is not 

 studied with the attention which its importance demands. I 

 think it has the appearance of something unnatural, to hear 

 gardeners and others talking about systems of inanimate matter, 

 and cannot tell of their own standing in the world of life and 

 being. It is something like a man setting himself up to teach 

 the geography of the moon, who knows nothing about the topo- 

 graphy within the branch of the apparent horizon by which he 

 is surrounded. It is all very well for gardeners to know some- 

 thing of vegetable physiology, such as cellular tissue and all the 



