2 BOTANY FOK YOUNG PEOPLE. 



they grow, — how varied, how numerous, and hoAV elegant they are, and with whai 

 exquisite skill they are fashioned and adorned, — we shall surely find it profitable 

 and pleasant to learn the lessons which they teach. 



Now this considering of plants inquiringly and intelligently is the study of 

 Botany. It is an easy study, when pursued in the right way and with diligent 

 attention. There is no difficulty in understanding how plants grow, and are nour- 

 ished by the ground, the rain, and the air ; nor in learning what their parts are, 

 and how they are adapted to each other and to the way the plant lives. And any 

 young person who will take some pains about it may learn to distinguish all our 

 common plants into their kinds, and find out their names. 



Interesting as this study is to all, it must be pai'ticularly so to Young People. 

 It appeals to their natural curiosity, to their lively desire of knowing about things : 

 it calls out and directs (i. e. educates) their powers of observation, and is adapted 

 to sharpen and exercise, in a very pleasant way, the facult}' of disci'imination. To 

 learn how to observe and how to distinguish things correctly, is the greater part of 

 education, and is that in which people otherwise well educated are apt to be sur- 

 prisingly deficient. Natural objects, everywhere present and endless in -s-ariety, 

 afford the best field for practice ; and the study when young, first of Botany, and 

 afterwards of the other Natl'RAI. Sciences, as they are called, is the best train- 

 ing that can be in these respects. This study ought to begin even before the 

 study of language. For to distinguish things scientifically (that is, carefully and 

 accurately) is simpler than to distinguish ideas. And in Natural History* the 

 learner is gradually led from the observation of things, up to the study of ideas or 

 the relations of things. 



This book is intended to teach Young People how to begin to read, with pleasure 

 and advantage, one large and easy chapter in the open Book of Nature ; namely, 

 that in which the wisdom and goodness of the Creator are plainly written in the 

 Vegetable Kingdom.* 



* Natural History is the study of the productions of the earth in their natural state, whether minerals 

 plants, or animals. These productions malie up what are called the Three Kingdoms of Nature, viz. : -^'. 



1. The iVineral Kingdom, which consists of the Minerals (earths, metals, crystals, &c.), bodies not 

 endowed with life. 



2. Tl:e Vegetable Kingdom, which comprehends Vegetables or Plants. 



3. The Animal Kingdom, which comprehends ail Animals. 



The natural history of the mineral kingdom is named Minekai.ogy. 



The natural history of the vegetable kingdom is BoTAh-v, — the subject of this book. 



The natural history of the animal kingdom is named Zocjlogy. 



