(X) 
young and old through garden and greenhouse or yet, box under arm, bidding 
them on through enameled mead, and smiling prairie, and laughing valley, and 
bosky glen, and dense woodland recesses—those secret retreats where coy growths 
shrink from human eye—along watercourse, now flowing through dusky dell, then 
meandering through fields gleaming in the sunlight; near hedge and on hillside; 
the professional Botanist, by the well-repaying toil of herborizing, patiently 
and practically instructs his pupils and interested followers, largely adds to his 
own fund of herbal lore, and accomplishes much for his fellow-men, in the way 
of health, nourishment, and other enjoyments. 
Duly equipped explorers in strange lands, much or little heard of, wisely, 
indeed, study the Fauna of those countries; but they are also gladly studious of 
the Flora that there will either welcomely greet them or would timidly draw back 
from their view. Like these fearless venturers into foreign parts, even zealous 
missionaries of the Gospel, who bravely penetrate into distant solitudes—to 
reach the peoples beyond—or who wander among the teeming multitudes of the 
heathen world—as in China, the “Flowery Kingdom,” Japan, India, Australia, 
in the Americas yet, and elsewhere 1 —busily employ the intervals vouchsafed them 
amid their holy work of delivering the Divine Tidings and discharging various 
other ministries of Grace, in carefully exploiting the resources of Nature’s 
wealth in the to them new realms of herb-growth—peering and prying into every 
adjacent nook, journeying through brake, and fen, and morass; wending their 
way in or round “deep-tangled wildwood,” climbing mountain or delving for 
roots; then, experimenting with their happy discoveries, testing the medicinal 
and other useful properties of curious plant and flower, grouping each in classes, 
orders, genera, species, and varieties, they write accurate descriptions and char¬ 
acterizations of their treasure-trove, to send to those of their brethren at home 
earnestly engaged in similar pursuits—thereby, with the commissioned explorers, 
widely extending the gracefully bordered boundaries of Botanical Science, and 
variously benefiting mankind in medical knowledge and practice, in acquaintance 
with precious woods, coveted spices, costly dyes, rare fibres for the rich fabrics 
of the loom, and even in the economics of food-products. 
Inspired seer and endowed bard, keenly alive to the many spiritual analo¬ 
gies presented for their imagery by the vast garden of creation, the chords of their 
hearts well in tone with the harmonies of color and form and fragrance, that 
abound therein, fondly enamored of Nature and of Nature’s God, ever turn im¬ 
pulsively to that surpassing vision of loveliness, for illustrations of their respect¬ 
ive Messages to man. The just are likened to the tree growing by the running 
