8 BOTANY/. 



a regular linear series, from one extreme of the scale of organi- 

 zation to the other, or from the lowest to the highest, without 

 any broken or double links in the chain. So that when the 

 organization of a plant is known, its true position may be 

 assigned in the system. Such would be a perfect Natural 

 System. 



(5.) Phytography (phuton, a plant, and grapho, I describe) 

 is the art of describing plants, or of expressing properly the 

 characters peculiar to an order, family, genus, and species. It 

 includes a knowledge of all the terms peculiar to the science, 

 which is sometimes called glossology (glossa, a language, and 

 logos, a discourse). It includes also the synonyma of the science, 

 that is, a knowledge of the different names under which the same 

 plant has been described by different authors. 



(6.) The examination of vegetable products: — First, as to 

 their constitution, forming vegetable chemistry ; second, as to 

 materials administering to the wants of men and animals. 



(7.) Geographical Botany includes the study of the distribu- 

 tion of plants on the surface of the globe, determined by physi- 

 cal conditions, such as latitude, elevation, moisture, &c. 



The station of a plant is its position in respect to physical 

 conditions, such as moisture, dryness, sterility, richness, &c. Its 

 habitation is its position in regard to country. Thus, the sta- 

 tion of the potato was in moist, rich, mountainous regions, its 

 habitation Peru. 



(8.) Applied Botany is that department of the science which 

 investigates the uses of vegetables as food, medicine, and as fur- 

 nishing materials to be used in the arts and sciences. 



4. There are three kingdoms of nature, the Animal, Vegeta- 

 ble, and Mineral, obviously distinct in the common objects that 

 compose them, yet closely connected and dependent. 



The Mineral is destitute of life, governed by ordinary chemi- 

 cal laws, and supplies the vegetable kingdom with food. The 

 individuals of the vegetable kingdom possess life, but all their 

 actions are involuntary, and they supply the animal kingdom 

 with food. 



Animals are not only endowed with life, but witji sensibility 

 and voluntary motion. At death they supply other animals 

 with food, or their materials return rapidly to their original con- 

 dition in the mineral kingdom, ready to go the same round 

 again. 



5th ? 6th ? 7th ? 8th ?— 4. How many kingdoms of nature ? How is the 

 mineral characterized? How the vegetable? How the animal? What 

 becomes of animals at death ? 



