ON THE SCIENCE OF BOTANY. 741 
complain ? almost all our farms have followed you to Loudon or Pa- 
ris, and of course, we must take the same journey. 
An old tree loves to prate, and you will excuse me if I have been 
too free with my tongue : I hope advice from an oak may make 
more impression upon you than the representation of your steward. 
My ancestors of Dodona were often consulted, and why should a 
British tree he denied liberty of speech ? but you are tired, you wish 
me to remain dumb : I will not detain you, though you will have too 
much reason to remember me ^vhen I am gone : I only beg, if I 
must fall, that you will send me to one of his Majesty's Dock yards, 
where xaj firmness and integrity may be employed in the service of 
my country ; while you, who are a slave to your wants, only live to 
enslave it." 
The Prodigal could bear no more ; he ordered the oak to be dis- 
patched, and the venerable tree fell without a groan. 
A Druid. 
Alvanley, near Frodsham. 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
ARTICLE XVII. 
ON THE SCIENCE OF BOTANY AS A NECESSARY STUDY, 
FOR YOUNG GARDENERS. •» 
BY F. F. ASHFORD, 
Under Gardener at R. Wilbraham^s, Esq. Rode Hall. 
The study of the Vegetable Kingdom is one of the most pleasing 
employments the mind of man is capable of enjoying, contemplating 
nature in all the various seasons of the year, climbing the mountain 
or descending the vale, in the forest, or in the mead, from the oak 
whose majestic boughs tower toward the skies, to the moss whose 
minute stem sports beneath its shade, every where there is something 
to amuse, in every thing something to instruct, something to aid us, 
To look through nature up to nature's God. 
Surely he must be an unconscious observer, who does not discover 
in every step 
The work of an Almighty hand. 
The study of Botany being a great acquisition to the scientific 
knowledge of the young gardener ; it is my intention in this and fol- 
