PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES, 
101 
division that portion of knowledge which to the higher classes would be useless, 
and to the lower unprofitable. 
Nevertheless, these lectures are attempted with a view of ascertaining whether 
or not Botany can be made the subject of a popular as well as instructive course. 
Hitherto, as far as we can judge, the attempt has failed. Let us try and profit 
by example. One principal cause may have arisen from the lecturer not having 
been sufficiently simple at the onset —not beginning with the A, B, €, no wonder 
he has failed in teaching to read. Giving credit to his hearers for more knowledge 
than they possessed, or rather taking for granted that all had some knowledge of 
the subject, some elementary attainment requisite to a proper understanding of 
terms and ideas, the major part of the audience have become weary and unin¬ 
terested. In place of being enabled to ascend pleasantly step by step to the top 
of the ladder, they have remained below, whence the astonished and disappointed 
leader has in vain urged them on to follow. 
Thus far to meet any remarks naturally suggesting themselves to those who 
have made some progress, and as our apology for considering all, at the outset, 
entirely ignorant on thre subject. Those who have patience to endure so long, 
will find in our now shallow stream, just bubbling from its source, depths where 
the giant may swim, though at first a child may wade ! 
The science of Botany does not require any abstract process of study; and 
though no royal road is open to knowledge, yet the mode of acquisition may be 
so simplified as to make that easy and pleasant which heretofore was rugged and 
difficult to attain. Botany more than any other science has been supposed by 
most persons to depend for its cultivation on a dry and elaborate transfusion of 
some hundreds, nay thousands, of hard, “jaw-dislocating” names, and names 
only, without any definite ideas, save that they are attached to some plant or 
plants, among the myriads that surround them, as, for instance, Tussilago farfara , 
Leo?itodon taraxacum , &c. &c. This opinion prevents many from making pro¬ 
gress, or even commencing a study, one of the most pleasant and instructive to 
which the mind can have access. 
In the first place, your vocubulary of terms must be obtained from the plants 
themselves, in the woods and fields, where, if possible, the lecturer would take 
you. In default of this, representations of their structure will be brought before 
the eye. These, and these only, are our vocabulary, which will furnish you in a 
very little time with a sufficient stock of ideas to comprehend the whole Linnsean 
system, and enable you to find out the name of every plant you meet with. 
One great advantage attends botanical pursuits, viz., that they may be pursued 
at periods when minutes, nay days, would otherwise perhaps be wasted ; as well as 
during the hours of necessary exercise, either riding or walking. Nature is the best 
teacher; and to her you must go for knowledge, or rather for subjects on which 
