48 
Botany—Blue Bells—Silk Raising, 
can thus take the soul gently out of the depths of] 
despair, and lift it high above the vexatious disap-' 
pointments of this world. They purify the heart 1 
they gladden, and while they make the man happier, 
they make him better than he was before. r. 
\ . BOTANY. 
Botany, in the most confined sense of the term, is 
the science which teaches us the arrangement of the 
members of the vegetable kingdom in a certain order 
or system, by which we are enabled to ascertain the 
name of any individual plant with facility and preci-j 
sion. Such arrangement is only to be considered as 
useful in proportion as it facilitates the acquirement 
of a knowledge of their economical and medicinalj 
qualities, which cannot be perfectly ascertained with¬ 
out an acquaintance with vegetable physiology, the I 
parts of plants, their functions, and uses. Botany, in 
its most comprehensive form, teaches us the names, 
arrangement, parts, functions, qualities, and uses of 
plants. 
A few facts will demonstrate that it is impossible 
to deny that vegetables possess some degree of sensa¬ 
tion. The Venus’s fly trap ( Dioncea muscipula) has 
jointed appendages to the leaves, which are furnished| 
on their edges with a row of strong prickles. Flies, | 
attracted by honey, which is secreted in glands on] „ n 
their surface, venture to alight upon them; no sooner! 
do their legs touch these parts than the sides of the | 
leaves spring up, and, locking their rows of prickles | 
together, squeeze the insects to death. The well; 
known sensitive plant (Mimosa, sensitiva and pudica) 
shrink from the slightest touch. Qxalis sensitiva andi 
Smitkia sensitiva are similarly irritable ; as also are! 
the stamens of the flower of the barberry. One 01 
this tribe {Hedysarum gyrans ) has a spontaneous mo 
tion—its leaves are frequently moving in various di 
rections without order or co-operation. When an in 
tion between the animal and vegetable king¬ 
doms. It is easy to distinguish a horse, or even 
a worm, from a rose tree or a fungus: but to 
distinguish a sensitive plant, &c. by descriptive 
marks from many zoophytes has hitherto bai- 
fled the acutest botanists. Many plants are gift¬ 
ed with spontaneous motion ; whilst many ani¬ 
mals, as the corallines, are devoid of locomotion ■ 
so that neither of these 'qualities avails us in 
distinguishing the two kingdoms. In short, 
whilst the zoophytes, most of which take root, 
grow up into stems, and multiply by buds and 
slips, must still be considered as animals, no one 
can correctly define how plants differ from them. 
It is, however, fortunate, that the student is sel¬ 
dom placed in a situation where these nice dis¬ 
tinctions are to be made. Where specimens are 
to be examined which admit of the doubt whe¬ 
ther they belong to the lower animals or to the 
vegetable tribes, chemistry may be called to our 
aid; if, when burnt, they emit an ammoniacal 
resembling that of feathers, similarly 
treated, we need not hesitate to consider them as 
animal products; if that of burning wood, they 
are fit objects for our botanical researches. 
Blue-Bells. (Scilla nutans.) — A common 
name given to a bulbous-rooted plant of the hy¬ 
acinth kind, frequently met with in woods and 
other places. Its bulb is globular, white, and 
. , - . coated: its leaves linear, chanelled, shining, and 
sect inserts its proboscis between the converging an . .' . , T . , 1f , ,1 ’n 
thers of a kind of dog’s bane ( Apocynum androscemifo drooping in their upper haL, the flowers form 
Hum), they close with a power usually sufficient t 
detain the intruder until his death. If from these 
and many other considerations, we conclude tha 
plants are endowed with a certain degree of sensa 
tion, or at least of irritability, we can pursue that 
path of the science no further. Such are the results 
of life ; what constitutes the living principle no hu 
man eye can discover. 
We gaze on a rose as it waves in the plenitude oi 
its vigour, admire the tints of its petals, the verdure 
of its foliage, the gracefulness of its form, the delica 
cy of its fragrance. We may come on the morrow, 
a cluster on an upright stalk, drooping in the 
upper half; they are blue, pendulous, nearly an 
inch long, and scented. The bulb is acrid, but 
its acrimony in drying, in which state it 
loses 
answers as a substitute for gum-arabic in the art 
of dyeing, by being simply dried and powdered. 
Johnson's Enc. 
Borne Stic Sills Raising—No. 
To the Editors of the American Agriculturist: 
-j -_ ___-,,, Gent. —Feeling a deep interest in the prosperity of 
and it has been blasted—those petals are scattered oni’our country, and alarmed with existing and threat- 
the borders—those leaves are withered and saDless— l! pnpd evils T availed mvself of the onnortunitv nre- 
the borders—those leaves are withered and sapless 
and scarcely a vestige of its loveliness remains.-^ 
Wherefore is this change 1 The same components 
remain—the same food was ready for its nourishment; 
but some invisible governing principle—some un¬ 
known agent—has silently departed, without one va¬ 
cancy to point out where it had resided, but a total 
ruin, to show that it had pervaded the whole. Let a 
few more hours pass away, when the air, and moist¬ 
ure, and heat, external agents which were subservient 
to its welfare, now concur in completing its destruc¬ 
tion—it is partly dissipated in pestilential exhalations, 
partly reduced to a few earthy and saline particles. 
Life, whilst it continued, prevented this ruin; but 
still, like its Great Author, “no one hath seen it at 
any time.” 
Distinction betzeecn the vegetable and ani¬ 
mal kingdom .—The definition of a plant to a 
superficial observer may appear easy; but those 
who have studied natural history are aware of 
the difficulty of drawing a just line of distinc¬ 
ened evils, I availed myself of the opportunity pre¬ 
sented by the “ American Agriculturist,” to express 
my views as to the cause of many of these evils, and 
the most likely means to check them. One cause I 
believed to have been, a relaxation of moral instruc¬ 
tion, unreasonable indulgence, and early habits ot 
idleness ; in short, a general abuse of the blessings 
of Providence ; and the best corrective would be em¬ 
ployment, with a reasonable prospect of acquiring a 
respectable living. I therefore recommended instruc¬ 
tion in the mechanic arts, and a good knowledge of 
farming in all its branches. I gave the preference to 
farming partly, perhaps, from having once been en¬ 
gaged in that business, and found it very agreeable, 
and reasonably profitable. I have however, always 
considered a well informed farmer*as one of the most 
independent, happy and respectable members of so¬ 
ciety. . . , 
In the article I have alluded to, and inserted in 
your first number, I promised to Communicate some 
improvement which I had made, in making butter, 
the culture of silk, &c.: the last of which, although 
