THE TECHNOLOGIST. 
POPULAR BOTANY, AN ILLUSTRATION OF SOME OF THE 
MOST INTERESTING PHENOMENA CONNECTED WITH 
VEGETABLE LIFE. 
BY H. A. GRAEF. 
Chairman of the Section on Botany in the Long Island Historical Society. 
The study of Natural History opens for us so many sources for moral 
reflections and pure enjoyments, and rewards us at the same time with 
so many valuable developments useful to practical life that it can hardly 
be sufficiently appreciated. Whoever has an opportunity should regard 
it as a duty, to aid and to sustain every branch of this science to the 
best of his ability. And as it was my fate to pass more than thirty 
years of my life among plants, where the most favourable opportunities 
were offered to observe and study their life and habits, it affords me great 
pleasure to communicate to those who take interest enough in this 
branch of natural history some of my own observations and reflections in 
connection with other facts more generally known. The main object 
of this essay will tend to sum up and explain some of the manifold and 
interesting phenomena connected with vegetable life ; to show some of 
the important functions which vegetables have to fulfil in the natural 
economy, and also the great wisdom and care which have necessarily 
been bestowed upon them, with regard 'to their creation, preservation, 
propagation, and diffusion over the surface of our globe. It would be 
to me a great gratification should these remarks make a lasting impres- 
sion on the moral feelings of those who peruse them, and lead to a 
greater interest in the study of Natural History in general. 
In order to be more perfectly understood I will try to avoid as much 
as possible all scientific terms, and wish, therefore, to have this paper 
regarded as an essay on popular botany. 
The English word Botany is derived from the Greek, and signifies 
VOL. vi. 3 B 
