18 
MINUTES OE PROCEEDINGS OE 
stations, the nation of travellers for travelling’s sake, the nation of 
which one man here and another there (as Schleiden sets forth in his 
book, “ The Plant,” in a charming ideal conversation at the Travellers’ 
Club) has seen and enjoyed more of the wonders and beauties of this 
planet than the men of any nation, not even excepting the Germans— 
that this nation, I say, should as yet have done nothing, or all but 
nothing, to teach in her schools a knowledge of that planet, of which 
she needs to know more, and can if she will know more, than any 
other nation upon it. 
As for the practical utility of such studies to a soldier, I only need, 
I trust, to hint at it to such an assembly as this. All must see of what 
advantage a rough knowledge of the botany of a district would be to 
an officer leading an exploring party, or engaged in bush warfare. To 
know what plants are poisonous; what plants, too, are eatable—and 
many more are eatable than is usually supposed; what plants yield 
oleaginous substances, whether for food or for other uses; what 
plants yield vegetable acids, as preventives of scurvy; what timbers 
are available for each of many different purposes; what will resist 
wet, salt-water, and the attacks of insects; what, again, can be 
used, at a pinch, for medicine or for styptics—and be sure, as a wise 
West Indian doctor once said to me, that there is more good medicine 
wild in the bush than there is in all the druggists’ shops—surely all 
this is a knowledge not beneath the notice of any enterprising officer, 
above all of an officer of engineers. I only ask anyone who thinks that 
I may be in the right, to glance through the lists of useful vegetable 
products given in Lindley’s “Vegetable Kingdom”'—a miracle of 
learning—and see the vast field open still to a thoughtful and observant 
man, even while on service; and not to forget that such knowledge, if 
he should hereafter leave the service and settle, as many do, in a distant 
land, may be a solid help to his future prosperity. So strongly do I 
feel on this matter, that I should like to see some knowledge at least 
of Dr. Oliver’s excellent little “ First Book of Indian Botany” required 
of all officers going to our Indian Empire; but as that will not be, at 
least for many a year to come, I recommend any gentlemen going to 
India to get that book, and while away the hours of the outward voyage 
by acquiring knowledge which will be a continual source of interest, 
and it may be now and then of profit, to them during their stay abroad. 
And for geology, again. I do not expect you all,- or perhaps any of 
you, to become such botanists as General Monro, whose recent “ Mono¬ 
graph of the Bamboos ” is an honour to British botanists, and a proof of 
the scientific power which is to be found here and there among British 
officers; neither do I expect you to become such geologists as Sir 
Roderick Murchison, or even to add such a grand chapter to the history 
of extinct animals as Major Cantley did by his discoveries in the 
Sewalik Hills. Nevertheless, you can learn—and I should earnestly 
advise you to learn—geology and mineralogy enough to be of great use 
to you in your profession, and of use, too, should you relinquish your 
profession hereafter. It must be profitable for any man, and specially 
for you, to know how and where to find good limestone, building stone, 
road metal; it must be good to be able to distinguish ores and mineral 
products; it must be good to know—as a geologist will usually know, 
