PREFACE, ix 
{oMy to the inventor of it. By this de- 
grading idea, men of the firft learning and 
talents in this branch of knowledge, have 
frequently been levelled with the moft iu- 
perficial enquirers^ and the mofl: ignorant 
pretenders. Hence alfo this Science, which 
even in a fpeculative view, holds no mean 
rank, and, conddered pradtically, is clofely 
connedled with medicine, and with the arts 
and elegancies of life, has been held forth 
as a trifling and futile employment. In 
truth, he properly is entitled, in any degree, 
to the cliaradler of the Botanift, whofe act- 
quirements enable him to invefligate, to de^ 
fcribe, and fyftematically arrange, any plant 
v/hich comes under his cognizance. But 
to thefe abiHties, in order to compleat the 
charad:er, fliould be united, an acquaintance 
with the Philofopby of Vegetables, and 
with the Hiflory of the Science, in all its 
feveral relations, both literary and pradlical, 
from remote antiquity to his own time : at- 
tainments which require a competent iliare 
of general learning, and no fmall degree of 
painful toil and patient induflry, both in the 
fields and in the clofet. 
• If 
