a tolerable botanist has been made by these works, and 
still more collectors, ever upon the alert to assemble the 
curious and new objects of their pursuit, that they may 
behold them a part of the general history of nature, and 
be taught their story, and while they themselves become . 
the means of having a value stamped upon things which 
had none before. A plant, for instance, that is to remain 
unknown to its possessor except by the fugitive blossom or 
till the owner becomes a botanist, is valueless and escapes 
attention; while by the publications to which we allude, 
the pursuits and expenses of the collector and the’ florist, 
otherwise lost and useless, are rendered important to 
knowledge, are made to enlarge the sphere of its activity, 
as well as to contribute to the amount of its treasures. It is 
not much above thirty years that a work of this kind ap- 
peared amongst us, and the diffusion of a taste for the 
study of nature has, to our certain knowledge and obser- 
vation, at least kept pace with that appearance. Formerly 
the rarest vegetable bloomed for its master alone, or per- 
haps to the desert air; now a blossom no sooner expands 
than its representative is spread, not only over this country, 
but in a short period reaches the abode of every Botanist, 
even of him who dwells at the foot of Mount Caucasus, 
and makes an addition to the general fund of literature, 
while it brings in contact the learned and lovers of this 
Science in every region, = Digse tou: 
~The reference to a figure enables the inhabitant of Pe- 
tersburgh and Vienna to acquire the plant he wishes to pos- 
sess from the nurseryman in London; while a name with- 
out a figure had long proved a source of irremediable 
confusion and imposition between thetwo. = 
The more costly works, published by the assistance of 
the continental governments, are useful only to the rich 
and to the student who has access to their libraries; to the 
bulk of mankind they are unknown and. of no,ayail. To 
detect a species, in the general enumerations) of ,plants, 
is only within the power of one already, versed; in this 
science ;. to others these works are unfathomable... 
- The vulgar complaint of the use of technical or hard 
terms is inconsiderate: botany, as an accurate study, like — 
the sister departments of natural history, is comparatively — 
a new branch of knowledge. Parts are now. spoken of, and 
brought within the sphere of observation, that were neither 
7 
