conformity with this feeling, every scholastic establishment, as- 
suming the least pretension to respectability, will, ere long, 
enumerate Botany amongst its principal studies. Ignorance 
of the plants which daily meet the eye, will then subject every 
one to the same pity or censure as a deficiency in other attain- 
ments. Nothing, surely, more rational can be taught than a 
knowledge of those things which we perpetually mix with. 
Independently of the extension of that knowledge which is so 
closely allied to our existence, in respect of our food, clothing, 
and habitations, the study of the vegetable creation may be en- 
couraged for its own sake ; for the sake of the delights it affords. 
This is feelingly referred to by the late President of the Linnean 
Society, who says. One idea is indeed worthy to mix in the pure 
contemplation of Nature, the anticipation of the pleasure we may 
have to bestow on kindred minds with onr own, in sharing with 
them our discoveries and our acquisitions. This is truly an ob- 
ject worthy of a good man, the pleasure of communicating vir- 
tuous disinterested pleasure to those who have the same tastes 
with ourselves; or of guiding young ingenuous minds to worthy 
pursuits, and facilitating their acquisition of what wc have al- 
ready obtained. If honours and respectful consideration reward 
such motives, they flow from a pure source. The giver and the 
receiver are alike iuvulnerahle, as well as inaccessible, to envy, 
jealotisy, or rivalship, and may pardon their attacks without 
an effort. 
With an increasing taste for rational and refined pursuits ; 
with an increasing fund of materials to administer to its gratifi- 
cations ; and, we hope, with some benefits arising out of expe- 
rience, there is reasonable ground for presuming that the Botanic 
Garden will every year add new patrons to old ones, till its 
flowers are known to all who can feel the pleasures of applying 
its precepts to practice. 
