PREFACE. IX 



from its contributing to order, and regular disposi- 

 tion in our ideas, thereby enlarging the capacity, and 

 strengthening the memory : — without dwelling upon the 

 advantage arising from its easy exemplification of the 

 Analytic method, in the processes exercised for discover- 

 ing the name of any unknown plant : — without long con- 

 sidering the tendency, that a comparison and balancing of 

 nice distinctions in this science possess, to sharpen the 

 discriminative powers of the mind : — without enlarging 

 upon the importance of the science, in connection with 

 Vegetable Chemistry, which furnishes an analysis of the 

 secretions of plants : — without dwelling long upon its con- 

 nection with Comparative Anatomy, where the analogies 

 of the animal and vegetable systems are laid open : — 

 without enlarging on its connection — with Gardening, 

 one of the purest of human pleasures ; — with Medi- 

 cine, in the various plants used in the Materia Medica, 

 and as affording economical uses, subservient to the com- 

 fort and conveniences of social life : — without long ad- 

 verting to the many pleasing associations in the study 

 of Botany, connected with plants, alluded to by the poet : 

 — without urging the utility of the science, as prompt- 

 ing to bodily exercise, and as rendering that exercise 

 more healthful, by the grateful stimulus given to the 

 mind, in pursuit of a favourite object, as an innocent 

 recreation, affording an exhilarating change of ideas, 

 after severer studies, and as tranquillizing the mind by a 

 gentle exertion of the reasoning powers, on pleasing 

 objects ; — without viewing the science as an innocent 

 succedaneum for boisterous pleasures, as a sort of anti- 

 dote, in some cases, to heartless dissipation, which blunts 



