14 FLORA INDICA. 



tural orders of plants. Unfortunately, in botany, as in every 

 other branch of natural science, no progress can be made in 

 the study of the vital phenomena except the observer have a 

 previous accurate acquaintance with the various modifications 

 under which the individual organs of plants appear in the dif- 

 ferent natural orders, and such an appreciation of the com- 

 parative value, structural and morphological, of these modifi- 

 cations, as can only be obtained by a careful study of the aifi- 

 nities of their genera and species. Ignorance of these general 

 laws leads to misinterpretation of the phenomena investigated 

 by the physiologist, and to that confusion of ideas which is so 

 conspicuous in the writings of some of the astute physiolo- 

 gical observers of the day. 



The modem system of botanical instruction attempts far 

 too much in a very limited space of time, and sends the stu- 

 dent forth so insufficiently grounded in any branch of the 

 science, that he is unprepared for the difficulties which he 

 encounters, let his desire to progress be ever so great. The 

 history of botanical discovery, and the philosophy of its ad- 

 vance, form instructive chapters for the student in any de- 

 partment of natural science. In Professor Whewell's ' His- 

 tory of the Inductive Sciences,' the subject is ably sketched 

 for the iaformation of the general reader; and it is there 

 shown that the most important contributions to the progress 

 of the science have been piirely physiological questions, in- 

 vestigated with consummate judgment by our most eminent 

 systematists. We owe to Linnseus the establishment of the 

 doctrine of the sexuahty of plants ; and we find by the writ- 

 ings of the same great naturalist, that besides foreseeing many 

 physiological discoveries, he preceded Goethe in the discovery 

 of morphology, a doctrine which, more than any other, has 

 tended to advance scientific botany. A third great discovery, 

 that of the nature of the ovule, and the relation of the pollen- 

 tube to the ovary, received its principal illustration at the 

 hands of Brown, our chief systematist, and of Brongniart, also 

 a practised botanist. 



