ON THE UTILITY OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES. 211 



ascertain the laws which determine the innumerable shapes in which 

 matter, both organic and inorganic, presents itself to our senses. All 

 the phenomena observed in the atmosphere above, as well as in the 

 earth beneath, fall within its domain. Chemistry is included among 

 the natural sciences, because the laws which regulate the affinities, the 

 motions ever existing among the molecules or ultimate atoms which 

 constitute matter, are among the subjects pertaining to the researches of 

 naturalists. 



A brief allusion to some branches of natural science will enable us 

 to perceive that its influence is advantageously felt in many departments 

 of those arts which contribute largely to the well-being of society. 



Botany does not consist exclusively in distinguishing from each 

 other the various forms of vegetation, and recognizing them by names 

 derived from the Greek and Latin languages. It does not teach us 

 siniply to divide the world's flora into orders, tribes, families, genera, 

 and species, according to an arbitrary system of arrangement, and to 

 know the peculiarities by which they may be certainly distinguished 

 one from the other. Botany includes a study of the anatomy and phy- 

 siology of the vegetable kingdom. Through this study, we acquire a 

 knowledge of the structure, mode of growth, and the kind of diet upon 

 which plants depend for sustenance, as well as the appropriate functions 

 of their several parts, and the circumstances which influence vegetable 

 existence. From it we have learned that plants derive nourishment 

 from the earth, through means of roots whose function is to separate 

 from the soil those salts or other materials which enter into the com- 

 position of their tissues ; and that, through the medium of leaves, they 

 breathe the air which is essential to their vitality, and, consequently, to 

 the circulation of sap and other liquids. 



Sum information is of no small value to the science of Agriculture 

 which essentially consists in a knowledge of the most successful means 

 of feeding the various plants cultivated for food, or for materials to be 

 used in the arts and manufactures. When the elementary composition 

 of plants is ascertained through the aid of chemistry, this knowledge 

 of their vital functions enables the agriculturist to select the soil, ex> 

 posure, and manures best adapted for each variety to obtain a lucrative 

 crop. 



But this is not the only manner in which natural history has led to 

 improved and rational modes of cultivation. The labors of botanists 

 have exploded many false notions which prevailed among farmers, cal- 

 culated to discourage efforts to protect their crops from injurious 

 influences. A power of self-transmutation was once attributed to plants ; 

 ignorant persons believed that some species Were cipable of metamor- 

 phosing themselves into others. It was once asserted, and believed, 

 that " barley frequently degenerates into oats," and even now some cre- 

 dulous persons contend that " wheat is sometimes transformed into 

 Iromus or cheat. " 



