THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



be taught to know something of the objects 

 which surround it, and which influence it 

 one way or another every day of its life. 



To those who, like many of you, know as 

 much or more of the subject than I do, it is 

 useless to attempt one single plea for 

 the benefit to be derived from a study of 

 Natural History. But as there are many 

 who do not profess to know so much about 

 the subject, you will pardon me for setting 

 forth for their information, some of the 

 many advantages to be derived from a 

 knowledge of nature's work. 



First, take the study of Botany, I need 

 not remind the most casual observer, the 

 many advantages we derive from the 

 vegetable world. Flax, linen, cotton, and 

 woods of every form and description, 

 wickerwork ; articles of food too numerous 

 to mention, are all derived from the 

 vegetable kingdom. In fact, there are 

 people who attempt to shew, with a con- 

 siderable amount of reason, that the 

 vegetable kingdom alone will furnish us 

 with all the food necessary to sustain life. 

 Farming and gardening are essentially 

 occupations where a knowledge of botany is 

 of the utmost utility. The growth and 

 proper development of plants, their proper 

 nourishment, and their relation one to 

 another, concerns the farmer perhaps more 

 than any other person. The horticulturist, 

 the joiner, the woodman, and numerous 

 other trades are all more or less interested 

 in this subject. Then there are phases of 

 botany which affect every person no matter 

 of what profession. There is not now per- 

 haps a single medical man in the United 

 Kingdom, who does not more or less 

 recognise the curative properties of plants, 

 and although it is doubtless by far the best 

 that those agencies should be dispensed by 

 medical men, yet with an increased 

 knowledge of physiology," and an increased 

 knowledge of medical botany, there are 

 times when, through inability to obtain | 



medical aid, or in cases of urgency, such 

 learning might be advantageously applied, 

 and disease prevented, or life saved. Though 

 many laws are enacted the sole object of 

 which is to prevent disease, they do not 

 always succeed in this object, in fact in 

 some cases they have directly the opposite 

 effect, but no law can prevent disease so 

 well as a knowledge of the medical uses of 

 the common herbs, coupled with a proper 

 understanding of the laws of Sanitary 

 Science, and every day life. I spoke of the 

 farmer as being most directly affected in his 

 calling by a knowledge, or the absence of a 

 knowledge of the growth of plants. I need 

 only mention one instance. In a meadow 

 field may be found 20 to 30 different species 

 of grass. One half of these will be in flower, 

 and ready for cutting in June, but the other 

 half will not be in a similar condition until 

 August. Now at whatever time the grass 

 be cut, some of it will either not have 

 arrived at perfection, or will have gone 

 beyond that point, and will consequently be 

 of less use for the purposes for which it is 

 intended Now I cannot but persuade 

 myself that if Botany was properly under- 

 stood by the farmer, some means might be 

 devised by which a field of grass could be 

 composed of such species as are in bloom 

 about the same time, and thus considerably 

 increase the value of most of the present 

 crops. Turn your attention again to the 

 baneful and lamentable consequences which 

 a want of botanical knowledge sometimes 

 produces. During the Summer months 

 scarcely a week passes but that cases are 

 reported in the newspapers, of children, 

 and sometimes of up-grown persons being 

 poisoned by eating poisonous plants in 

 mistake for edible ones. Some most 

 lamentable cases could be set before you, 

 but the subject is too painful to dwell upon. 

 Then again, look on the other side, how 

 many edible, nutritous, and even delicious 

 plants are allowed to grow and decay, or 



