supplied with the requisite organs, put in motion by interesting mechanism. There is an elegant symme- 1 
try in some, and in others singular and fantastique forms ; yet in both the arrangement and adaptation are 
equally wonderful. The vegetable being is built up and nourished by certain materials, that it collects 
generally from the earth, where its roots are usually fixed, by means of certain organs, and, circulating 
through the pipes with which its system is supplied, are appropriated and assimilated : these peculiar organs 
perform their several functions, and, as in the animal economy, deposit their respective elaborations where 
the secreted substance is wanted, and no where else. In the animal machine, unless when morbid action 
supervenes, oseous matter is not precipitated among the muscles, nor muscle among the nerves; so in the 
other, the elaborate sap contributes what is essential to the formation of alburnum in its ascent; and in its 
descent, what is required for the growth of liber. The plant by these means increases in size and strength^ 
and from an acorn becomes an oak, “whose seed is in itself.” Through these curiously constructed system 
of pipes and cells, the noiseless and unobtrusive process of vegetation moves on, and the life of the plant 
is supported and continued. Its ultimate and external evolutions are subjects of interest and admiration, 
in the beautiful attire which adorns the plant ; but the delicate and subtile chemistry, over which life imme- 
diately presides, is intercepted by a veil which defies the philosophy of man with all the keen scrutinies of 
his research. 
Vegetable physiology is indebted to the labours of a multitude, who have successively interrogated many 
of the most elaborate phenomena of vegetation. 
Botany is a simple term, but embraces a most comprehensive science. It is a grievous mistake to con- 
fine its application to mere nomenclature, and the limited knowledge of being able to discriminate one plant t 
from another. If our studies terminate in these things, we are content with its alphabet, while the interest 
that pervades the natural history of vegetation, and its wondrous phenomena, are consigned to unmerited I! 
neglect. The simple acquisition of calling plants by their names, and distinguishing one from another, or 
even describing them in the barbarous jargon of latinity, so profusely displayed by some that bear the name, 
and effect the title of eminent botanists, excites our pity and regret for such a useless waste of time and 
talent, worse than misapplied, as it only serves to perpetuate the alchymy of science, and frighten, if not 
disgust, those who would otherwise enter upon the study, and pursue it with delight. Nomenclature is 
very well, and it is necessary ; but we look for something more from those who should be qualified to give J 
it. The petty details of a Latin description, in all the trifling of contemptible minutiae, draws a little too 
much on passive obedience and forbearance, when unaccompanied with a single allusion to its physiology, | 
its use or adaption. Is it too much to call these individuals learned and laborious triflers ; “pleased with a j 
feather, tickled with a straw?” They obstinately withhold the key of knowledge from the individual who | 
would willingly enter in by the gates of science, and form one to the banquet. Like the cuttle-fish, they 
render themselves invisible by an obscurity of their creation, and flounder in darkness. At best they re- 
semble, with their hortus siccus in store, a mere collector of butterflies and moths, accompanied with a parade 
of names ; while the possessor still remains like one of the heroes described in Parson’s “ Book of Fools.” 
Far different is it with those who wish their fellows to join them, and enjoy the .advantages and pleasures of 
science. Natural history is at the present moment in a most deplorable and repulsive state, from a phalanx 
of uncouth names, incessantly changing and changed by the caprice or whim of the individual who may 
spend a little more time on any specific subject of enquiry than his predecessor had done: in this way many 
plants have more than a half-dozen of names, dressed in turgid Greco-Latin. It is indeed desirable that 
this folly were at an end: I have no doubt numbers, as well as myself, feel the difficulties to be almost in- 
surmountable. 
The physiology of vegetation does not stop short with a description of the structure and attire of plants 
in their visible form and exterior; it investigates not only their organs, but their functions: it penetrates 
the history of the life of the plant, in its various evolutions of phenomena, and traces the progress of its an- 
nals from that point in its history when it is committed to the earth, under the form of an acorn, until it 
becomes the hamadryad of the forest, — “ the monarch of the woods.” 
