344 Lecture on Botany. 



studied, the organs of reproduction were better examined andd«e 

 attention was paid to the essential products of vegetation — the 

 fruit and seed. In consequence, the science made rapid advances 

 and resulted in the construction of a natural method and ar- 

 rangement of plants. France, Germany and Italy vied with each 

 other in discoveries. The botanist of the present day is familiar 

 with the names of Lorentzo Jussieu, Augustus Pyramus Decan- 

 dolle, Mirbel, Rudolphi and Treviranus, whose works on structural 

 botany and natural systems were published at the beginning of the 

 present century. Since that period, botany has made rapid strides 

 The natural systems of Jussieu and Decandollehave been materially 

 improved by Endlicher, and more especially by Lindley in his 

 elaborate work entitled " The Vegetable Kingdom." The vari- 

 ous interesting researches of Gaudichaud, Schleiden, Mohl, Brown, 

 Amici, Griffith, Schultz and others, have in a measure completed 

 our knowledge of the structure and functions of the different 

 parts and organs of plants and of their alliances and affinities ; 

 while the labours of Liebig, Mulder and Johnston on the chemistry 

 of plants have tended to the application of botanical science to the 

 interests of agriculture and horticulture, at the same time that others 

 as Christison, Royle, Burnett and Lindley, have supplied valuable 

 data in reference to their medicinal properties and diatetic uses.. 

 ^Not less important and interesting have been the researches and 

 observations, both practical and speculative, made in reference to 

 the geographical distribution of plants over the globe as well as 

 regarding those plants which existed on the earth in its primaeval 

 state and which now lie as monuments of vanished forms of vege- 

 table life, buried in the vast geological epochs that elapsed before 

 the establishment of the present order of things. 



And what has been the ultimate effect of this ? Why, it has 

 raised the standard of botany to the high rank it should hold — 

 rivalling, if not excelling its sister sciences — and has estabhshed it 

 within schools and universities as one of the most interesting 

 beautiful and useful of studies. It claims as its votaries a host of 

 the most accomplished of minds and of the highest order of rank, 

 and it now flourishes in all countries and in every clime. And why 

 should Canada rest satisfied — now that she is interesting herself 

 in the subject of schools and colleges — till she has established 

 these as nurseries of science as well as of arts and literature — nur- 

 series that will rear up } ouths of talent and ability, to be hereafter 

 claimed as lasting monuments of honor and credit to the country.. 



