REPORT ON THE BOTANY OF MADISON, LIN- 

 COLN, GARRARD. WASHINGTON, 



AND MARION COUNTIES. 



f 



INTRODUCTION. 



No one subject connected with our material prosperity- 

 deserves more attention and a closer investigation than that 

 of the vegetative life which covers the earth. Considered 

 only in the light of natural productions, plants and plant life 

 arc sources of varied* knowledge to the student, and afford 

 many pleasures to the mind. There can be no higher mental 

 enjoyment than the satisfaction of feeling that, in passing- 

 through life, we have gathered to ourselves some lessons 

 taught by the trees of the forests, the grains of the fields, or 

 the smaller plants which surround us everywhere. There is 

 no subject by which the mind can be better disciplined for 

 thought, there is no field from which so many illustrations 

 can be drawn, and there is no branch of science by which 

 the mind can be more broadened and liberalized, and the 

 observing powers strengthened than that of botany. There 

 is so much to be learned from the habits and growth and dis- 

 tribution of plants, that no man should be content unless he 

 has acquainted himself to some extent with some of the pecu- 

 liarities and resources of vegetable life. 



Besides the enjoyments derived from an investigation of 

 the beauties and singular habits of plants, they are studied 

 in their adaptation to the more personal and general relations 

 the)- bear to the economy of our daily lives. To an almost 

 unlimited extent, they enter into the health and comfort and 

 pleasure of our every hour. It is to plant life that we look 

 for protection and shelter through the inclemencies of sea- 

 sons. It is from plant life that we derive the larger part of 

 the food which feeds us in hunger and the clothing which 



