Page:Frost (1827) Some account of the science of botany.pdf/14

32 with such a delightful branch of knowledge, always presenting fresh living objects to the eye, bedecked in the most fascinating colours, and exhaling the most delicious odours, call forth the better feelings of the imagination; and may we not say with the poet—

Let us only see how many of the arts are tributary to it, and especially remark the relation that exists between it and Agriculture. Martyn's Flora Rustica will bear out my position, as well as many other works; but to trace its immediate advantages to individuals, we would observe how indispensable a knowledge of it is to those who visit foreign climes. Not only may a ship-wrecked crew be fed by fruits which require the aid of the Botanist to discriminate as to their noxious or esculent properties, but it may even open a new channel of commerce, e. g. the bark of a great portion of the trees which grow in Australasia afford tannin in considerable abundance, so much so, that it has been found worth while to separate it for exportation. New fruits are by its means introduced, for it is the Botanist alone that can vouch for their character. But the principal use of Botany is in supplying us with medicines for the alleviation of disease; and it will prove a national good, when it shall be made a part of the imperative duty of the Medical Practitioner to be acquainted with it; for there can be no doubt but that every country has plants indigenous to it for the cure of the maladies which may befal its inhabitants; for no person can suppose for a moment that the All-wise Creator has formed any thing without its use. The more the subject is investigated, the greater its advantages will appear. I would not say more, lest it should seem like over praise, but trust to your candour to excuse the insufficiency of these remarks.

Having endeavoured to shew the claims of this interesting Science on your attention, I shall now proceed to offer some observations respecting the vegetable economy. Can a mere knowledge of the external appearances of plants suffice? Certainly not,—for it is by tracing the minutiæ of Nature that we discover the mechanism of organized beings so ably contrived, and