What hath this day deserved? What hath it done,
That it in golden letter should be set
Among the high tides in the Calendar ?

There is

A Tongue in every STAR, that talks with MAN,
And woos him to be wise.

Not a TREE,

A PLANT, a LEAF, a BLOSSOM, but contains

A folio volume.

Introduction.

ANY.

ELEMENTS OF BOTANY.

BOTANY is that branch of natural history which treats of the vegetable kingdom. That plants are organized bodies does not now admit of a single doubt. Their evolution from seeds to a certain size, the formation of the flower, and of fresh seeds which are again changed into plants of the same kind with those from which they sprung, is a continual circle of creation, augmentation, vitality, and decay, which clearly entitles them to this appellation.

There is a considerable similarity between animals and vegetables. The former have an organized structure which regularly unfolds itself, and is nourished and supported by air and food; they consequently. possess life, and are subject to death: they are, moreover, endowed with sensation, and with spontaneous as well as with voluntary motion.

Vegetables are organized, supported by air and food, endowed with life, and subject to death, as well as animals. They have, according to Dr. Smith, in some instances spontaneous, though we know not that they have voluntary motion. They are sensible to the action of nourishment, air, and light, and either thrive or languish according to the wholesome or hurtful application of these stimulants. This is evident to all those persons who have ever seen a b

plant growing in a climate, soil, or situation, not suitable to it. 'Those,' says the author already quoted, who have ever gathered a rose, know but too well how soon it withers; and the familiar application of its fate to that of human life and beauty is not more striking to the imagination than philosophically and literally true'.' The sensitive plant, as we shall, in a subsequent volume, have occasion to notice more particularly, is a very astonishing example of the capability of vegetables to be acted upon as living bodies. The spontaneous motions of plants are as readily to be observed as their principle of vitality. The general direction of their branches, and especially of the upper surface of their leaves to the light; the unfolding and closing of their flowers, at stated times, or according to the circumstances in which they happen to be placed, are actions depending, no doubt, on their vital principle, and are performed with greater or less facility in proportion as that principle is in its greatest vigour. Hence arises a question, whether vegetables are endowed with sensation? but into this we shall not now enter, as the want of it would be of no practical use in distinguishing them, in doubtful cases, from animals.

It is sufficient for the youthful student in Natural History to know, that in every case in which he can hesitate whether he has found a plant or one of the lower orders of animals, the simple experiment

Habington has beautifully alluded to this circumstance: see the poetical quotation at p. 182.

154.

This subject has been noticed in our last volume, pp. 149

of burning will decide the question.

The smell

of a burnt bone, coralline, or other animal substance, is so peculiar, that it can never be mistaken, for no known vegetable will give out the same odour. The mineral kingdom can never be confounded with the other two. Fossils are masses of mere dead unorganized matter, subject to the laws of chemistry alone: growing, indeed, or increasing by mechanical addition of extraneous substances, or by the laws of chemical attraction, but not fed by nourishment taken into an organized structure. Their crystallization bears some resemblance to organization, but performs none of its functions, nor is any thing like a vital principle to be found in this department of nature.

A plant consists of various parts, as, a root, stems, and branches; and each of these parts bear others, as bark, leaves, flowers, &c.

All plants and trees, according to the Linnæan system of botany, are arranged into classes, orders, genera, species, and varieties. The classes are composed of orders-the orders of genera-the genera of species, and many species include a number of varieties. According to this classification, the vegetable has been compared with the animal world, in the following manner, which has been thought useful in assisting the memory with respect to the terms just specified :

MAN in general.
Nations of men.

Tribes or divisions of nations.
Families that compose tribes.
Individuals of which families

consist.

Individuals under different ap

pearances.

The modern system of Botany, invented by the great Swedish naturalist, Linnæus, is denominated the Sexual system, from the circumstance of its being founded on a discovery that there is, in vegetables as well as in animals, a distinction of sexes. The generality of flowers contain within them the characters of both sexes; in one class of vegetables the sexes are divided, and allotted to different flowers on the same plant; in another class, the male flowers grow all upon one plant, and the female upon another. This circumstance did not escape the observation of the antients. From the palm-tree, the fruit of which was held in high estimation, they learnt that, as the male flowers were upon one tree, and the female upon another, the flowers of the male were necessary to perfect the fruit of the female. It is known from Herodotus, in his account of Babylon, that their practice was conformable to this idea. Palm-trees were there an object of universal cultivation, and it was common for the inhabitants to assist the operations of nature, by gathering the flowers of the male trees, and conveying them to the female. Thus they secured the ripening of the fruit, which, otherwise, from unfavourable seasons, or the want of a proper intermixture of the trees of each sex, might have been precarious, or deficient, at least, in the expected quantity.

It has been thought surprising that this discovery did not lead the antients to discover the entire process of nature in the propagation of the various species of vegetables, nevertheless it does not appear that they ever went beyond this obvious process upon the palm-tree, and some similar ideas concerning