THE 



GARDENER'S MAGAZINE, 



MAY, 1843. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Akt. I. Comparative Physiology. By R. Lyme urn. 



The knowledge of the science of physiology to practical men 

 is valuable, as teaching them the functions of the various parts 

 of plants, and enabling them to apply the necessary food and 

 training in the best possible manner. Different climates, 

 seasons, and soils require different treatment ; so likewise do 

 different plants and different states of the same plant ; and a 

 knowledge of the way in which the different functions are per- 

 formed enables us to apply the necessary food at the best 

 time, in the best condition, and with most economy. This 

 knowledge, when acquired by practical men, is also valuable to 

 science, as enabling those who in their every-day practice have 

 opportunity of observing the works of nature on a great scale 

 (as performed by nature itself in a manner that cannot possibly 

 be wrong, if correctly observed), to examine and correct the 

 rules laid down by theory. The experiments in the laboratory 

 are necessarily on so small a scale, as compared with the great 

 laboratory of nature, that some small circumstance omitted may, 

 though trifling to the limited extent observed, be of sufficient 

 magnitude to derange the conclusions of theory. Practice and 

 theory should thus be mutually beneficial to each other; the 

 conclusions drawn by scientific men from interrogating nature 

 in a superior manner, by means out of the reach of practical 

 men, should, if correct, be found to correspond with the ob- 

 servations of practice; and, by the constant application of the 

 one to the other, both will be benefited. The desire of practical 

 men to benefit from the deductions of science is at present so 

 great, as to have called forth the exertions of many eminently 

 scientific men to popularise theory, by simplifying the subjects 

 treated of, so as to bring them to the capacity of the cultivators 

 of the soil. 



Among the many helps towards the simplifying of the 

 subject, that of comparative physiology is a valuable assistant. 

 3d Ser.— 1843. V. o 



