2 



WEEDS. 



the discoveries of man have not yet found any appUcation. 

 It must not be imagined that the stores of nature are ex- 

 hausted ; and far less that the hmited powers of man are able 

 fully to investigate and explain the nature and use of the 

 numerous objects that catch his eye and engage his atten- 

 tion. Past and present experience have shown that the 

 medicinal uses of weedy plants are very great ; and from them 

 are obtained the drugs that tend most powerfully to check 

 and remove the disorders of the human frame. This one 

 property very sufficiently vindicates their claim to a high 

 place of utility, and rescues them from a useless degradation. 

 When the vegetation has reached the maturity of full blossom, 

 tlie structure forms a body of hgneous and vascular matter, 

 which being used in decomposition, forms the very best ma- 

 nure that is yet known : for of all the ingredients that acces- 

 sory science is daily bringing into use for the purpose of fer- 

 tilizing the earth, and stimulating the growth of plants, no 

 competitor has yet appeared that is capable of contesting the 

 foremost place which decaying vegetable matters have held 

 in the scale of manures, ever since the art of agriculture was 

 practised by man. These two invaluable properties being 

 duly considered, will convince that, when any production of 

 nature is found to be useless for some specific purpose, or 

 hurtful to any object that is desired to be attained, the con- 

 clusion must not be drawn, that it is on that account to be 

 reckoned some careless or superfluous item thrown heedlessly 

 from the lap of nature's bounty, and about which it has not 

 exercised the provisionary and fitting aptitude that is so 

 abundantly displayed in the stupendous magnificence and 

 minute care that pervade every fabrication of nature's work- 

 shop. Nothing more powerfully tends to elevate the mind 

 of man, than the contemplation of the works of nature; and 

 profound and serious thoughts are very agreeably relieved by 

 passing from the grand to the minute, there to admire, with 

 equal adoration, the plastic hand that paints the crocus and 

 the lilac, and which has essayed its art in heaving pile upon 

 pile to form mountains almost to scale the vault of heaven. 

 It is most pleasing and instructive to a contemplative man to 



