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Z INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY.

the noxious effluvia of the laboratory," which are practicesin themselves so prejudicial to health, one would almost heled to think it was by Divine dispensation that he is affordedso pleasant a contrast as the study of Medical Botany, whenin pursuit of which he freely ranges the fields breathing thepurest atmosphere, and surrounded by all that can charmthe eye or the ear; an employment not less conducive tohealth than it is to recreative amusement.

This science has of late years been studied theoreticallyonly; by which persons are taught to distinguish the dif-ferent parts of a plant, and to call each by its propername, and to know how to apply them scientifically asa key to the different systems that have been published.But there are few who possess much practical knowledge,either as to an acquaintance with our native plants at sight,or with their useful or noxious qualities'; and which canonly be acquired by attending to the different habits andcharacters of each in their native places of growth. Bythis means also proper specimens may be obtained andpreserved, and the memory from time to time refreshedby reference thereto.

And as the practical part should, in some degree, be en-grafted on the theoretic, so the first object should be toobtain a knowledge of the rules of some system, which maybe studied to the best advantage by an application to books,aided by examples of plants properly arranged in botanicgardens.

A number of botanical professors have engaged in en-deavouring to form systems for the arrangement of thisportion of natural history; and many have been the ruleslaid down and adopted at different times, which have intheir turn given place to others that seemed to possessgreater advantages. But none have as yet approached sonear to perfection as that of the celebrated Linnams, whichhas stood its ground for fifty years, and is the only one usedin the present day throughout the British islands and thenorth of Europe. The French, however, from nationalpride, adhere in general to the system of their country-man, Jussieu.

The system of Linnams, if divested of many of those