630 THE UTILITY OF BOTANICAL KNOWLEDGE. 
turns, eat with equal pleasure, and some with avidity, a variety of 
other vegetables also. Numberless instances occur where one 
class of animals will feed with pleasure on those vegetables 
which others refuse to touch, and will even rather pine than eat. 
Some plants are highly noxious, and even poisonous, to certain 
kinds of animals, while, at the same time, they are eaten by 
others without the least subsequent ill. These are facts which 
must, in some measure, have been obvious to the most incautious 
of mankind, even in the earliest ages of the world. The very 
first race of shepherds must have had daily instances of them 
before their eyes, and diligent observation must have multi¬ 
plied, further illustrated, and confirmed them. But they were 
still only known in the general ; no experiments had been made 
to ascertain precisely the several species of vegetables thus eaten 
or rejected. The facts are undeniable ; and every man’s know¬ 
ledge at this time furnishes him with some instances of the truth 
of them. We all know that thistles, flag-flower, hemlock, docks, 
crow-feet, marsh-marigolds, and a variety of other plants, are 
commonly neglected by our horses and horned cattle, and stand 
untouched even in pastures not the most fertile and abundant, 
and where one would think that necessity would drive them to 
eat any thing. These are but a few out of many instances : 
there are more than is commonly imagined ; and one could 
wish, in consequence of it, that a course of experiments had 
been made, to point out the particular instances of this instinct, 
in that part especially of the brute creation which is so imme¬ 
diately subservient to the uses of mankind. The utility of such 
experiments must be evident to every one, inasmuch as they ne¬ 
cessarily lay the foundation of further improvements in the eco¬ 
nomy of cattle. The intelligent husbandman would, by these 
means, have it in his power to rid his pastures of noxious and 
useless plants, and thereby give more room for the wholesome 
and salubrious ones. 
What might be wished for in this respect has been, in some 
measure, done. A worthy and truly laudable attempt has been 
made, by the desire and under the auspices of the celebrated 
Linnaeus, whose great aim in all his botanic researches is 
to render the science subservient to the public emolument. 
To this end, it is certainly the province of a botanist to make 
the plants of his own country the principal objects of his at¬ 
tention : this has eminently been the case with the illustrious 
author abovenamed, and his country will long reap the fruits of 
his labours. The results of these experiments may be seen in a 
paper entitled Siiecus, printed in the second volume of the 
Amoemtates AcademiccZj and the substance of which, so far as 
