317 Observations on Botany, .^-c, [Oct. 



uiuier our sway, we know little of its natural history beyond what 

 enterprising toreig:ners have taught us. 



AVe have long considered Botany a pursuit, which would amply 

 repay the trouble of mastering its difficulties, by the gratifica- 

 tion it would afterwards afford; but it will do more in an unex- 

 plored country like this, where there is a wide field and few labour- 

 ers, it will reward the diligent by addmg celebrity to theirnames, by 

 the important discoveries they are likely to make, both to mankind 

 and to science. From motives such as these, we hope many, now 

 that they have the means, will be induced to study it, but putting 

 interest out of the question we would recommend " Botany for its 

 own sake, since, as a mental exercise or study for raising curiosity, 

 gratifying a taste for btauty of contrivance, and sharpening the 

 powers of discrimination, nothing can exceed it" To this well 

 merited panegyric we may add, that no branch of natural history 

 has been so much cultivated, or had the talents of so many eminent 

 men devoted to its extension and improvement. Nor is this to 

 be wondered at, when we bear in mind that to the vegetable king- 

 dom, man, even in his rudest state, is largely indebted for his food, 

 clothing, shelter, and medicine : how much more in a high state 

 of civilization, can only be estimated by those who are acquainted 

 with the thousands of necessaries, conveniencies, and luxuries of 

 life, we derive from plants. 



The better to enable our readers to follow us in our after remarks, 

 we shall devote the first part of this article, to a concise view of the 

 objects of the science, and then proceed with our review. 



Botany may be divided into two principal branches, economical, 

 and systematical or practical Botany. To the first belong agri- 

 cultuial and medical botany; both taken in the widest sense of the 

 terms : to the second, the anatomy, physiology, classification, des- 

 cription, and geographical distribution of plants. The first treats 

 of the cultivation of those plants from which products useful toman 

 are procured. The second teaches ; 1st, The structure or oganiza- 

 tion of plants ; 2d, The functions which the different organs per- 

 form, either in supporting life or in elaborating those principles 

 which render them useful or otherwise to mankind ; 3d, The rules 

 by which they have been methodically arranged and distinguished 

 from each other ; and 4th, The laws which regulate their distribu- 

 tion over the surface of the globe. 



From this enumeration of the objects of the two branches, it must 

 be evident, that though the first is the most cultivated and most 



