- 
41797] 
of fome plan, which could enable intel- 
ligent farmers to become fo far acquaint- 
ed with the nature, ftruéture, and names 
of plants, that they might judge of the 
propriety of admitting, or rejecting, par- 
ticular ones, in the practice of hufbandry. 
Such a plan would be attended with 
great difficulties, but yet it is practica- 
ble ; and furely, whatever would tend, 
in the remoteft degree, to the promotion 
of ufeful knowledge, is worthy of the 
moft laborious attempt. It would be 
confiftent, therefore, with fuch a defign, 
in an eafy and familiar treatife, to illu{- 
trate the general ftructyure of plants, to 
elucidate thgir natural claffes, in which 
Should be arranged all plants, either 
ufeful or injurious in hufbandry, with 
their appropriate names, and {uitable de- 
fcriptions. Much has been already done, 
jn various feattered differtations, relative 
to the economical part of botany, which 
might be applied, with confiderable ad-. 
vantage, to a defign of this nature.— 
Amongft other works of this kind, the 
excellent treatife of Linnaeus, entitled 
Pan Suecus; the Praétical Differtation on 
the Graffes, by Mr. Swaine and Mr. 
Curtis; the Flora Ruftica, and Botanifis’ 
Didionary, publifhing by profeffor Mar- 
tyn, would furnifh much valuable matter 
for a fyftem of agricultural botany. 
— Such, fir, are the hints I have to fug- 
geft; and fhould they mect the atten- 
tion and further confideration of your 
agricultural and botanical correfpondents, 
i thall be happy in having introduced a 
fubjeét fo intimately conneéted with the 
molt interefting and important purfuits 
gf man. Tam your's, &c. 
March 8, 1797- PHYTOLOQGUS. 
ee 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
SKETCHES OF OBSERVATIONS MADE 
IN A JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY, 
IN 179Q. 
On the Manuferipts and other Antiquities 
preferved in the Mufeum at Portict. 
AS the time of that fignal and ruin- 
**% ous eruption of Mount Vefuvius, 
‘hy which the ancient cities of Hercu- 
Janeum and Pompeia were overwhelm- 
ed, no one would have imagined, that 
any part of human exiftence could be 
benefited by the ravages of the volcano. 
But it preferved a great part of what it 
appeared to deftroy ; and to its interfer- 
ence it is, that we are indebted for many 
elegant memorials of antiquity, that 
would otherwife have been {wept away 
by the blind rage of the Gothic hordes, or 
Gbliterated by the fiudious ignorance, of 
_ what room for hope ! 
Mufeum of Portici. : 263 
their monkifh fucceffors. The greater 
part of thefe relics tend only to gratify 
our curiofity, or, at beft, to correé our 
tafte; but from the celebrared manu- 
{cripts taken out of Herculaneum, much 
inftruction, and much delight, have long 
been expeéted. Succeffive travellers, 
treading in each other’s fteps, have not 
failed to confirm the fanguine hopes of 
the literati. They have even rifen one 
above the other, till, to complete the cli- 
max, the writer of a recent tour vene 
tures to promife us, all that the fine 
fancy of fabling Greece ever invented, 
and all that we have loft of the records 
_of ancient Rome *. 
Unpleafant as it is to do away an 
agreeable delufion, the intereft of truth 
requires me to relate fome faéts of an un- 
favourable nature, which refult from my 
own repeated enquiries, and which in- 
cline me to believe, that the magnificent 
opinion entertained of the contents of 
the library at Portici, proceeds from 2 
want of information on the part of our 
travelling countrymen. 
To prove that the recovery of the loft 
decades of Livy is hopelefs, as well as 
that of any other Roman work, it will 
fuffice to obferve, that every one of the 
manufcripts is in the Greek language ; 
and that, in the early ages of the em- 
pire, the people of that country held the 
literature of their conquerors in fove- 
reign contempt. Nor are our hopes of 
getting back what time has ftolen from 
the ftores of Attic witand eloquence, much 
better founded, provided the informa. 
tion I received from the keeper of the 
mufeum be deferving of any faith. 
_ The Cuficde, whom f found there, on 
my laft vifir, was far more intelligent, 
and liberal of his communications. than 
his predeceffors. I afked him, if any 
important literary produétion had yet 
PFe ae Miho AT Rac RUT SCAT 
* The moft interefting, fays Mr. Watkins, 
and moft valuable room, is the library, from 
the numerous manuf{cript rolls which it con- 
tains.—What a field is here for conjecture !— 
Among this ineftimable 
colleétion, how many great works are there, of 
which even the names are unknown! How 
many unbroken volumes, whofe very fragments, 
preferved in the writings of the ancient {cho- 
liafts, convey to us moral information and de- 
light! Perhaps, all the dramatic pieces of Me- 
nander and Philemon;—perhaps, the lo@ de-- 
cades of Livy; for it is impoflible to fuppofe, 
that among fo many rolls, the moft admired hi 
tory of the people who poffefled them, is not 
to: be found—What private library in Britain 
is without the beft hiftories of England? — S: 
WATKINS’s Tour through Italy and Greece. 
been 
é 


