40 
REMARKS ON BRITISH PLANTS. 
acquaintance with botanical science was induced, and the gratification of this only 
served as a stimulus to higher and more critical attainments. We mention this, 
because well aware that novitiates frequently experience so many difficulties and 
discouragements in the outset, that they sometimes relinquish the pursuit, in 
despair of ever attaining any proficiency. We will venture to assure them, how- 
ever, that the elementary initiation once surmounted, (which, by a little perse- 
vering application may very soon be effected,) progress will be easy — success 
certain; while, as the science becomes more familiar to them, their attachment 
to it will proportionately increase, and they will ultimately find it capable of 
imparting an untold amount of unsullied satisfaction and unvitiated pleasure. 
For studying the flowers peculiar to this country, a manual of British botany, 
a glossary of botanical terms, and a small magnifying-glass, are essential. If the 
student also possess opportunities for forming an herbarium, this will likewise be a 
valuable acquisition. We will suppose the tyro equipped with the three requi- 
sites above-mentioned, and starting on a botanical excursion. We observe, by the 
way, that this is far preferable to collecting the specimens, and carrying them 
home for examination, for reasons which must be obvious to every one. He 
discovers a plant which is unknown to him, surveys it, ascertains its class and 
order in the Linnean system, and turns to that section of his " British Flora" to 
search for a generic character to which it will correspond. The habits of the 
plant, its leaves, its flowers, its capsules, and seeds, are all subjected to a scru- 
tinizing investigation ; and at length it is assigned with certainty to its proper 
genus. 
This may be all decided with tolerable facility, but then its specific distinction 
has to be determined. If the species are numerous, and very varied, he must 
first inquire whether it is an annual or perennial herb, a shrub, or a tree. Having 
clearly affixed to it one of these characters, there may yet be several species of the 
genus to which it will apply. He will then ask if it is evergreen or deciduous ; 
whether its mode of growth be erect or procumbent, compact or spreading ; and 
after satisfying himself upon all these points, the form and colour of its members 
will next engage his attention. He succeeds at last in discovering a specific 
character most closely in accordance with its essential features, except that his 
specimen is perhaps only two inches high, while the plant is described as being 
twice that size ; it is also remarkably hairy, whereas that circumstance is either 
unnoticed, or barely alluded to ; and all its parts are more diminutive than he 
finds them reported. To add to his perplexity, the colours of the flowers are 
much darker ; and he searches again and again for a more applicable description, 
but to no effect — it is nowhere to be found. More than once he resolves to 
abandon the attempt, and as often re-resolves to search again. 
Now all this embarrassment proceeds from inattention to a very trifling matter ; 
viz. the situation and soil in which the plant is growing. A moment's considera- 
tion of this subject would have solved the difficulty. The work he has consulted 
