68 
LADIES’ BOTANY. 
copper-plate engravings, viz. one for each letter, furnishing the 
figures of plants which are easily attainable either from the fields or 
the commonest gardens, so as to illustrate each order as it proceeds. 
We were very much gratified on a perusal of the work, because it 
appears to us to be just what was wanted. Bv far the greater number 
of those previously written on the Natural System, (not excepting Dr. 
Bindley’s famous “Introduction”) notwithstanding their excellence 
and utility to the practical and experienced man, are nevertheless too 
complicated for those totally unacquainted with Botany, presenting 
at first sight to the mind of a new beginner, obstacles which appear 
insurmountable. 
This may be illustrated by an extract from the Doctor’s first letter. 
“A lady, observing some ants travelling across a table, dropped a 
lump of sugar in the midst of them ; but, to her surprise, although 
ants are noted sugar-eaters, they all retreated in terror from the spot, 
nor could any of them afterwards find courage to return to examine 
the object of their dread: on the contrary, they chose another 
track, and carefully avoided that which would have proved a treasure 
had they known its value. Struck by this occurrence, the lady 
placed the piece of sugar on a part of the table near which the ants 
were in the habit of crossing, and when she saw one of them ap¬ 
proaching it, she gently placed her finger in its way, so as to obstruct 
his passage without alarming him; the ant paused, looked around 
him, and then took a new direction, not exactly towards the sugar, 
hut near it; the lady again opposed his passage gently, and at last, 
by making him take a sort of zigzag direction, tacking, as it were, 
at every few steps, the ant was unconsciously brought to the sugar 
without being frightened. Once then, he examined the glittering 
rock attentively, touched it with his antennee, broke off a morsel, and 
hastened away with it to the ant-hill; thence he presently returned 
at the head of a host of his comrades, by whom the rest of the sugar 
was quickly carried off. 
So it is with science, and the young who have to acquire a know¬ 
ledge of it. Let them be once alarmed at the aspect of their new 
pursuit, and it is almost impossible to restore their confidence; but 
there are few who, if led to it insensibly, will not persevere till they 
have made themselves masters of the subject. 
The most discouraging parts of Botany to a beginner, consist 
either in the numerous new and strange names of which the mean¬ 
ing has to be learned, or in the minuteness of the parts, by which 
plants are distinguished from each other, or in the great multitude 
ol species of which the vegetable kingdom consists ; and it must be 
