EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
285 
We already see, from the few short papers we have pub¬ 
lished on botany, that the science has a direct bearing on 
the subject of general anatomy, the laws and principles 
affecting the one branch of science having a marvellous simi¬ 
litude to the other. In the language of Professor Lindley, 
another and not less important purpose has been to de¬ 
monstrate, by a series of well-conducted proofs, that in no 
department of natural history are the simplicity and harmony 
that pervade the universe more strikingly manifest than in 
the vegetable kingdom, where the most varied forms are pro¬ 
duced by the combination of a very small number of distinct 
organs ; and the most important phenomena are distinctly 
explained by a few simple laws of life and structure.^^ 
Seeing, then, that this science is capable of affording so 
much useful information to our professional brethren, we 
hope the time is not far distant when botany will form part 
of the education of the aspirant to veterinary honours, and 
we may suggest one of the subjects also in the examination 
for the Diploma of the College. Botany is to be considered 
in this view of it, not merely as a mental exercise, or as a 
subject connected with a liberal education, but as being a 
science capable of assisting us in important practical as well 
as theoretical conclusions. 
As a practical subject, surely a science which reviews the 
vegetable kingdom—the subjects of which are so beneficial 
or so disastrous to the animal kingdom—can hardly be other 
than pre-eminently useful, for it is one which teaches us 
what forms of vegetable to cultivate, and how to act in 
their cultivation, thus often aiding us in converting useless 
or noxious weeds into wholesome nutrient matters—a 
science capable of guiding the farmer in the production of 
vegetables for the various uses of animals. A knowledge 
of botany, finally, again says Professor Bindley, teaches 
the physician how to discover, in every region, medicines 
that are best adapted for the maladies prevalent in it, and 
which, by furnishing him with a certain clue to the know¬ 
ledge of the tribes in which particular properties are or are 
not to be found, renders him as much at ease alone, and 
seemingly without resources, in a land of unknown herbs, 
XLIT. 20 
