188 



AGRICULTURE. 



BOOK I. 



The Vegetable Kingdom may be considered under the 

 four following subdivisions; viz, 1st, General economy; 2dly, 

 Classification and nomenclature; 3dly, Natural properties; 

 and, 4tbly, Uses. 



1. The Economy and Laws of Vegetation. — This includes the 

 physiology of vegetables ; their structure and anatomy ; the 

 motion of the sap ; their natural propagation ; the formation of 

 their parts, their nourishment, &c. A knowledge of this branch 

 of botany is of the utmost importance in discovering the cause 

 and nature of diseases ; in promoting the growth, increasing the 

 natural longevity, or augmenting such essential parts of indivi- 

 dual vegetables as are particularly subservient to mankind. 



2. The Classification or systematic Arrangement of Vegetables, 

 and Nomenclature. — This has been effected in many different 

 ways. Nearly ail are agreed on the sevenfold divisions and 

 names of trees and shrubs, plants, grasses, ferns, mosses, fungi or 

 mushrooms, and flags or sea weeds. The system of Linnaeus is at 

 least the most useful hitherto proposed,' and perhaps as com- 

 plete as the number of vegetables yet discovered will admit of. 

 Its arrangement of vegetables into twenty-four classes, and 

 each of these into orders, genera, species, and varieties, is gene- 

 rally adopted, and the Linnaean nomenclature almost univer- 

 sally followed ; it consequently deserves the particular study of 



