December 16,1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
4S1 
PLEASANT BOTANICAL REMINISCENCES. 
BY A. r. HASELDEN, F.L.S. 
Papers setting forth the many advantages to be 
derived from the study of botany are not uncommon, 
but memory does not serve in reminding me of any 
written for this Journal upon the enjoyment obtained 
during the progress of botanical study, excepting 
two most excellent and notable, which formed the 
principal part, or, it might be said, the whole of 
Professor Bentley’s opening , addresses at the meet¬ 
ings of the Conference, of which he was President 
in the years 180(5-7, vide Pharmaceutical Journal, 
Second Series, Yol. VIII. p. 108, and Vol. IX. p. 
153. Should the lines which follow lead or induce 
any to turn back and read those addresses, the 
writer will have accomplished something. Not 
taking into account the satisfaction of well-regu¬ 
lated minds from the acquirement of knowledge 
generally, the study of botany offers gratifications 
beyond the gain of information, great as that is. 
The good botanical student will not be content with 
books, he will work in the school-room of Nature. 
The first gain will be that of becoming a lover of 
order, no small .pleasure in itself. Without order 
and method in the progress, a great success must 
not be expected ; persevering regularity in the work 
must be engendered; it is not a study at the outset, 
to be taken up noiv and then, or put aside for months; 
and it should be accepted in truthfulness and simple- 
mindedness; in every onward step there will bo 
pleasure, never-ending sources of occupation; and 
what life, devoid o f occupation, is truly happy ? Mark 
the beauty of shape, the loveliness of colour, the 
almost boundless variety of flowers, grasses, ferns, 
mosses, algae and fungi, from the very commence¬ 
ment, when learning that the ceil is the foundation 
of vegetable structure; that the simplest plants are 
composed of individual cells; that those a little 
higher in the scale are made up of aggregations of 
cells; and from the formation of cells studying on 
until the majestic forest oak and beautiful palms 
are reached, there will be found a constant source of 
recreation. Think of the variety of forms of roots 
and underground stems; the differently-shaped 
leaves, their position on the stem and their office; 
the stems, the kinds of inflorescence and fruits ; the 
internal and external structure, and the means of 
propagation. Putting aside generalities, let me 
draw upon the imagination, and picture the student, 
the real earnest student, rising in summer an hour 
or two sooner than the other inmates of the house; 
suppose him in the country or country town, the 
fresh morning air wafting gently through the open 
casement, now see him emerge with botanical case 
strapped across the back or fastened to the side, a 
stout stick, with well-curved handle, to help in 
stretcliing over a roadside ditch, or in hooking some 
flowers out of ordinary reach, a strong clasp-knife or 
small trowel in pocket to assist in digging round the 
roots, so as to enable him to secure the whole plant 
if possible,—the true botanist in some cases wants 
the roots, as well as leaves and flowers. Behold 
the glow of health upon his cheek as he returns 
for the morning meal. Unlike the sportsman who 
shoots the feathered race, or the angler coquetting 
with the finny tribe, the botanist is sure of sport; 
even when he does not obtain that which he is par¬ 
ticularly seeking, he is certain to find some material 
Third Series, No. 77. 
for future examination and study. Though the 
honeysuckle, traveller’s-joy or the dog-rose do not 
welcome him on the hedge, he may find, upon the 
turfy bank and roadside the slender harebell, yarrow, 
ragwort and toadflax; and in the meadows and corn¬ 
fields, the gaudy poppy, the dandelion, daisy and 
buttercup; if when alone the enjoyment is good, 
how much more so when kindred spirits work the 
morning through! and when the noonday heat over¬ 
takes them near some village-green, when rest seems 
almost necessary, they wander on until they reach—- 
“ The hawthorn bush and seat beneath the shade 
Tor talking age and whispering lovers made.” 
Then sitting down upon the welcome bench, each 
from his box brings forth his stock of flowers, etc., 
and interchange is made of those which some have 
and some have not; then, one more experienced than 
the rest explains as well as he can the prominent 
points of difference between the specimens, enlarges 
upon the useful properties of one, and the dangerous 
peculiarities of another; how they may be best 
pressed and dried, fixed on sheets of paper, and 
arranged for the formation of an herbarium. And now 
wending the way towards home, if in early autumn 
time they pluck the bittersweet with berries bright and 
red from the hedge, or perchance the deadly night¬ 
shade with black and alluring but dangerous berries. 
Thus far some of the enjoyment of collecting at differ¬ 
ent times and seasons ; then comes the satisfaction of 
sorting, arranging and determining the names and 
orders of some about which there was a doubt; also 
the innate feeling that the little stock of botanical 
knowledge is not all by the book. For those more 
advanced there remains the pleasure to be derived 
from the more recent discoveries and the communica¬ 
tion of information often carried on by friendly corre¬ 
spondents. If an excuse may here be offered for 
those who do not take kindly to botany, it may be 
said that from the first this disadvantage has been 
attached to it, or the study of it, that it was con¬ 
sidered as a part of medicine, and so whilst it was 
originally studied more as the means of discovering 
the qualities of herbs, etc., in their remedial capa¬ 
city, the knowledge of them as plants or parts of the 
vegetable kingdom was not so much a matter of 
study or recreation, as a search after new remedies. 
I feel pretty sure that many a student has thrown 
up botany in disgust when left to himself, from the 
fact that at every step in the commencement of book 
teaching he feels as if he were learning the mean¬ 
ings of a long vocabulary of words derived from 
Greek and Latin roots ; and it is rarely that this 
feeling is overcome, unless the student enjoy the 
advantages obtained from working under the direc¬ 
tion of a professor or in a class with others. Having 
had the benefit of this, he knows how to work when, 
left to himself. The enthusiastic botanist, like the 
painter, the musician, the linguist, or the author, is 
born a botanist; but a strong love of the science 
may be acquired, and a good acquaintance obtained, 
when its enjoyable part is better known and appre¬ 
ciated. In order to enjoy botany, it is not absolutely 
necessary that systems, orders, classes and alliances 
should at once be attacked. Being reminded that 
agreeable remembrances of botany should form the 
subject of this communication, I may sum up: there 
is, in the first place, the pleasure of acquired know¬ 
ledge ; secondly, that derived from the way in which 
it is acquired; thirdly, and not the least, the enjoy- 
