Z AN INTRODUCTION 



be, that as air and exercise are salutary to the body, 

 it is useful to encourage a taste for a pursuit which 

 tempts its votaries abroad. The sports of the field 

 are applauded on this account ; but these are the 

 privilege of the few ; of those who are among the 

 rich, and who are blessed with health and strength 

 and the full tide of spirits which the rude exercise 

 demands : but the gentle charm which calls the 

 Botanist into the fields and woods operates upon 

 the tender and dejected, as well as the robust and 

 joyous ; and many a valetudinarian, who has 

 wanted an inducement to walk, would have found 

 it in the pursuit of Botany. 



It is moreover to be urged, that a taste for 

 simple pleasures is salutary to the mind ; that men 

 who love to contemplate the works of nature learn 

 to look with less longing eyes upon the entice- 

 ments of the world ; and that the most eminent of 

 naturalists have been found among the most amiable 

 of men. Finally, if the authority of a great name 

 be demanded to countenance the rationality of the 

 pursuit, let it be remembered, that the wisest of 

 mankind, he whose glorious raiment was less lovely 

 than the ///j/, did not disdain " to speak of trees," 

 from the cedar that waved over Libanus to the 

 hyssop that grew upon the wall ; and that the 

 Royal Botanist included in his scope still humbler 

 vegetables ; for it has been suggested, that the 

 word which in our bible is translated Hyssop, 



