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History of botany. 
LECTURE XLIII. 
History of Botany from the Creation of the World , V a Revival 
of Letters in the reign of Charlemagne, in the year A.D. 770. 
e are now to enter upon a part of our course of botanical 
investigations, which, if you have well understood thepreceding 
lectures, will be highly interesting ; it will require li'tle effort of 
thought to comprehend, and will be less encEmberrd with tech- 
nical terms than the other departments, 
• We propose to give an account of the progress of botanical 
knowledge ; and this being closely connected with other sciences,, 
you may consider it as a general view of the p ogress of natural 
science. 
After becoming familiar with a science, fie mind very natu- 
rally seeks for information respecting its o'igm, and the progress 
by which it advanced from the first ride conceptions which 
might have been formed, to its gradual aevelopement and com- 
parative perfection. 
The history of the progress of a science makes a part of the 
science itself ; we are interested in the various efforts of philos- 
ophers, their experience and observations, and the trains of rea- 
soning by which they have arriied at those conclusions which 
are the basis of science. 
In botany as in the other sciences, physical wants were the 
first guides; man at first sought to find in vegetables, food, 
then remedies for diseases, ahd lastly amusement and instruction. 
The first account of plants may be traced to the history of 
the creation by Moses. It was on the third day of this great 
work that God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb 
yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, 
whose seed is in itself, upon Hie earth : and it was so ; and the 
earth brought forth grass, and the herb yielding seed after his 
kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after 
Lis kind ; and God saw that it teas good." After this, it is re- 
corded that God gave to Adam every herb and every tree bear- 
ing fruit ; the latter was for him exclusive]} - , but to the beasts 
of the earth, and the fowls of the air, and to every thing where- 
in there is life, he also gave the green herb for meat. 
It is recorded that Adam gave names to all the beasts of the 
field and the fowls of the air ; and Milton, imagines that to Eve 
was assigned the pleasant task of giving names to flowers, and 
History of botanical science — After becoming 1 familiar with a science we 
wish to know its history — First account of plants traced to the history of 
the creation — Milton imagines that Eve gave names to the plants and num- 
bered their tribes. 
