BOTANY. 
sicians. Historians inform us that the mis- 
seltoe was held by our ancestors in such 
veneration, that it was only allowed to be 
cut by a priest, and with a golden knife ; 
when thus prepared, it was dispensed as a 
charm to prevent sterility, and to overcome 
the fatal effects of poison. We learn from 
Pliny that various superstitious rites with 
respect to many other plants were a’so care- 
fully observed by the Druids. Vervain 
and savin were among the number; the 
former of these being used as a means to 
conciliate friendship, and the latter as an 
antidote to misfortunes. A small portion 
of the mountain-ash was believed to act as 
a charm against the powers of witchcraft, 
and this idea is still prevalent in the high- 
lands of Scotland, where it is usual to drive 
cattle with a switch of this tree in order 
that they may be preserved from the evils 
of enchantment. 
The Saxons appear to have made but 
little proficiency in the investigation of 
plants, though some of the Saxon manuscript 
lierbals shew that the study was not altoge- 
ther disregarded by this people. Their 
chief aim was to be acquainted with plants 
in a medicinal point of view. Botany in- 
deed was involved in the utmost obscurity, 
being merely studied as an auxiliary to 
astrology, even to the middle of the 16th 
century, for at that period was published 
“ A Lyttel Herbal of the Properties of 
Herbs, newly amended arid corrected, with 
certain additions at the end of the boke, 
declarying what herbs hath influence of 
certain starres and constellations, whereby 
may be chosen the best and most lucky 
times and days of their ministration, ac- 
cording to the Moon being in the signs of 
Heaven, the which is daily appointed in 
the almanack ; made and gathered in the 
year M.D.L. xii, Feb, by Anthony Ascham, 
Physician.” London, loot). 12°. 
But from these times of ignorance and 
barbarism, in which the fairest of sciences 
was converted to the most foolish of pur- 
poses, let us now turn to the contempla- 
tion of the first gleams of wisdom that 
darted through the clouds when rent asun- 
der by the inventors of systematical botany. 
Conrad Gesner, at Zurich, and Caesal- 
pinus, at Rome, towards the end of the 
lfith century, entirely independent of each 
other, first conceived the idea of a regular 
classification of plants by their flowers and 
fruit, to which, as Dr. Smith has observed, 
“ the very existence of botany, as a science, 
is owing.” Upon this plan various systems 
have been framed by succeeding botanists, 
but before we enter upon this subject it 
will be essential, in the first place, to un- 
derstand the general anatomy of plants, 
and lastly, the nature and functions of their 
particular organs. 
It will readily be admitted that the most 
convenient mode of coming to a knowledge 
of the anatomy of vegetables, is to begin 
from their external covering, the epidermis, 
or cuticle. Various theories have been 
formed respecting its uses to the vegetable 
body, but physiologists have mostly agreed 
that it was designed as a guard against tlio 
injurious effects of the atmosphere upon 
the vital parts of plants, since this, as well 
as the human cuticle, is merely a dead sub- 
stance. The infinite variety of appearances 
which the epidermis assumes in different 
plants is peculiarly striking. It is com- 
monly transparent and smooth ; sometimes 
it is hairy or downy ; sometimes of so hard 
a substance, that even flint has been de- 
tected in its composition. Hence the 
Dutch rush, equisetum hyemale, serves as a 
tile to polish wood, ivory, and even brass. 
Under the cuticle is found a substance, 
which till very lately has been but slightly 
noticed by physiologists. This is the cel- 
lular integument, analogous to the rete mu- 
cosum of animals ; it is like that of a pulpy 
texture and the seat of colour. It is com- 
monly green in the leaves and stems, and 
is dependent for its hue on the action of 
light. 
When the cellular integument is removed, 
the outer surface of the bark presents itself, 
which, in plants or branches that are only 
one year old, consists of one simple layer, 
often scarcely separable from the wood. 
In the branches and stems of trees it con- 
sists of as many layers as they are years 
old ; the innermost of these is called the 
liber, or inner bark, in which the vital func- 
tions for the season are carried on, and in 
the meanwhile materials for the new liber 
are secreted and deposited on the inside ; 
the latter is destined to perform the requi- 
site functions in the ensuing spring, when 
the last year’s liber is united and assimi- 
lated to the outer bark as its predecessors 
had been. It appears also from the expe- 
riments and observations of Duhamel, Hope, 
Knight, aud others, that the liber deposits 
also matter for a new layer of wood. The 
bark owes its strength and tenacity to in- 
numerable woody fibres, mostly longitudi- 
nal, though connected laterally so as to 
make a kind of net-work. This reticula- 
