Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/40

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DEFINITION OF NATURAL HISTORY, AND PARTICULARLY BOTANY.—OF THE GENERAL TEXTURE OF PLANTS.

History properly signifies that study by which we learn to distinguish from one another the natural bodies, whether Animal, Vegetable or Mineral, around us; to discover as much as possible their nature and properties, and especially their natural dependence on each other in the general scale of beings. In a more extensive sense it may be said to teach their secondary properties, or the various uses to which they have been, or may be, converted, in the service of mankind or of other animals; inasmuch as an acquaintance with their natural qualities is our only sure guide to a knowledge of their