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of any avail. An herbarium is not a bundle of dried herbs, nor 

 a heap of haj and sticks, but an eloquent book. Each specimen 

 bears several values. One is its intrinsic value as a preserved 

 plant-form, a curiously organized production of nature. Those 

 whose tastes and habits lead them to constant association with 

 plants, acquire a sort of reverence for every living plant or for 

 every dried specimen of some carefully prepared vegetable. 

 This is no extravagance nor folly, neither does any enthusiasm 

 explain the fact. It arises from the increasing sense of the 

 magnitude of the importance, which attaches to vegetation 

 above every other natural effort of creative power and wisdom. 

 Almost every one acquires a love for some tree or trees upon 

 his grounds, even a reverence for some favorite old and ven- 

 erable weather beaten specimen, with which his eye has been 

 always familiar. What ruthless deed would go unavenged, 

 which destroyed or injured a patriarch pear tree or noble old 

 apple tree, which had fed and delighted many generations ? "Who 

 would not try to spare, amid public improvements, some relic 

 of the forest, yet stretching its branches over the thickly set- 

 tling village, which is " but as yesterday" compared to it '? 

 We sometimes wonder at the longing for the sight of a bit of 

 green grass, or the delight at meeting a familiar weed of our 

 homes in some distant land — but why should we wonder? 

 Once a person was very much overcome at the sight of a tropi- 

 cal plant in my garden, and with much emotion cried out, 

 "Home, home." The dark green foliage of a taro plant, car- 

 ried him back to his childhood, from the scenes of which he 

 had been separated for many, many years. Had he met one of 

 his playmates as suddenly, he could not have been more affect- 

 ed. Such and similar are the results from the intrinsic value 

 of every plant, from the " hyssop which groweth on the wall 

 to the cedar of Lebanon." Such sensations are valuable and 

 important for culture of the mind and of our natures. It were 

 better if there were more of it, and wiser and more virtuous 

 would many be, if such feelings were more prevalent. 



2. Every vegetable organization has an associative value. 

 This is seen in the garden and in the herbarium. The former 

 is the hortus virescens and vivens — the other is the ho7iii, 



