REMARKS ON BRITISH PLANTS. 
39 
of indigenous tribes ; but no doubt can be entertained respecting their foreign 
origin, and a variety of circumstances may have occurred or conspired to accom- 
plish their acclimatization. It is very questionable whether any further unknown 
species will be hereafter discovered, although there is a great probability of new 
varieties arising from casual impregnation. 
By the fact of a group of plants being elaborately described, we are presented 
with unequalled facilities for recognising and familiarising ourselves with them ; 
but there is another particular of equal importance, which is, we believe, peculiar 
to the plants of this country. It is the circumstance of their distribution being 
so precisely ascertained, that there are few species to which a distinct locality has 
not been assigned. This is especially the case with the rarer kinds ; and though 
some are found scattered over almost all parts of the islands, yet the districts 
which they inhabit more abundantly are, in general, accurately defined. The 
value of this can be duly appreciated by those only who are desirous of acquiring 
an acquaintance with our native plants. To such it supplies at once definite 
objects for research, and an infallible guide to the attainment of those objects. 
Indeed, the landscape may be said to be a text-book for the student of British 
botany, and a description of the structure and locality of plants the key by which 
he is enabled to refer to the proper department, and meet with the specimen 
desired. 
British plants are, for many reasons, well worthy of enlightened and devoted 
study. Their intrinsic beauty ; — the means which they afford for acquiring a 
knowledge of systematic, and also of physiological botany ; — their properties and 
uses, whether as food for the animated tribes, for medicine, for mechanism, or in 
the arts; — the powerful incentives with which they furnish the invalid, the ner- 
vous, or the dyspeptic, to exercise and activity, those most invaluable auxiliaries 
in promoting convalescence and conserving health ; — their touching poetical asso- 
ciations, and their happy influence in soothing the wounded spirit, or subduing 
the agitated soul : — severally and unitedly establish their claim to the attention of 
all classes of society. With each and all of these we would urge upon our readers 
the advantage of entering at once (if they have hitherto neglected to do so) upon 
this interesting pursuit ; but, for the practical and lucid insight into the science 
of botany which it is calculated to afford, and the attachment to that study which 
it generally inspires, we would particularly suggest its importance to the young 
gardener and botanic pupil. 
Those alone who have bestowed any attention on the plants of their native 
country, know the immense benefit which a person aspiring to the mastery of 
botany derives from such observation. We speak experimentally. Our earliest 
knowledge of the organs, the structure, the conformation, ay, and the functions of 
plants, was obtained while collecting and examining the charming productions of 
our domestic soil. The listlessness of our first efforts soon gave place to interest, 
and this was speedily succeeded by enthusiasm ; a thirst for a more extensive 
