AN

INAUGURAL LECTURE

ON

BOTANY,

CONSIDERED AS A SCIENCE, AND AS A BRANCH
OF MEDICAL EDUCATION.

HEAD IN KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON, MAY 8tU, 1843.

BY

EDWARD FORBES, F.L.S., F.B.S.,

VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE WERNERIAN NATURAL niSTORY SOCIETY, ETC.;
PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON.

QTUli: MAIL

LONDON:

JOHN VAN VOORST, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW ;

SOLD ALSO BY

B. FELLOWES, LUDGATE STREET;

BOOKSELLER TO THE COLLEGE.

PRINTED BY RICHARD AND JOHN E. TAYLOR,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

Mr. Principal and Gentlemen,

One of the last friends from whom I parted before
leaving England two years ago on a voyage of research in the
East, was the distinguished and much-lamented botanist whom
I have the high but melancholy honour of succeeding in this
chair. His last words on that occasion were instructions for
my guidance during a proposed investigation of the natural
history of the Archipelago and Asia Minor. The great know-
ledge which he possessed of botanical science was freely and
enthusiastically imparted to all who had the pleasure and
benefit of his acquaintance. In the place of that knowledge
and experience, I fear I can only offer a fervent attachment to
his favourite pursuit, and a determination energetically to
labour in the service of this noble Institution.

The duties of the Botanical Professorship are, the teach-
ing of Botany as a science, and as a branch of medical educa-
tion. Being rather an ally than a province of medicine, it
forms a connecting link between professional and purely
scientific studies. The nature of the subjects of which it
treats, requires that it should be numbered among the studies
of the Summer Session, when it is honourably associated in
the medical department with forensic medicine and practical
chemistry. In this introductory lecture I propose, with your
permission, to offer a few remarks on the Natural- History
sciences generally, and on Botany in particular, as branches of
medical education ; to take a brief view of the relations of
Botany to other pursuits ; and to offer some considerations »
upon the science, and upon the principles of acquiring a know-
ledge of it.

The Natural- History sciences are three : — Zoology treat-
ing of the animal kingdom, Botany of the vegetable, and
Mineralogy of the inorganic bodies abounding in nature.

4

These three are united by the inquiries of Geology, which is
rather an exposition of their mutual connexion than a sepa-
rate science of itself. It may be looked upon as the history
of the earth’s changes during its preparation for the recep-
tion of organized beings, and of the causes which determined
the order of their appearance — the proemium of the history
of Man.

The biological sciences, zoology and botany, are intimately
related to physiology and anatomy; and the more those
sciences advance, the closer will be the connexion. In the
most remote divisions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms,
we find the keys which enable us to lay open and understand
the mysteries of vital phenomena. Through a knowledge of
the structure of a simple polype we may comprehend moie
clearly the complicated machinery of the body of man ; and
the observation of the origin and development of a seed may
throw light upon one of the most intricate functions in the
animal economy.

The views of systematic botany and of systematic zoology
are fast attaining a parallelism which must end in the dis-
covery and development of great general laws common to
both. The two great kingdoms of organized nature seem to
spring, as it were, from one root, and to branch out into cor-
respondent trunks, which, even at then’ most distant lami-
fications, exhibit mutual analogies. The lowest forms of each
so closely approximate as to furnish subjects for continual
discussion ; and the number of species, the position of w hicli,
whether in the animal or vegetable kingdom, is as yet dis-
puted or undetermined, proves the close alliance of the animal
and vegetable natures toward the point of union. Creatines
which Ehrenberg figures as animalcules, Meyen dcsciibes as
plants ; and naturalists have not yet ceased debating on the
nature of sponges and corallinse. As we ascend in each gieat

series, the animal or vegetable nature of their respective mem-
bers becomes more and more decided and unquestionable,
while there is still retained a close resemblance of external
form. Thus a Mucor, an Agaricus and a Spfueria image, as
it were, then' parallels and yet opposites, a Hydra, a Medusa
and an Echinus. Ascending higher we find all resemblance of
form disappear, but still there is a true analogy. The exo-
skeleton of the Monocotyledones represents, though far and
faintly, the exoskeleton of the Articulata ; and the endoskeleton
of the Dicotyledones the same great modification of structure
in the Vertebrata. Both kingdoms seem pervaded by a double
representation of each other, — two great spheres, as it were,
repeated within themselves; a representation which will in
all probability be found as true in the minor as in the major
groups of organized beings.

Yeiy different laws regulate the mineral kingdom. Life
absent, all the wonderful structures which result from its for-
mative presence have disappeared. Aggregation is but a faint
remembrancer of assimilation, and crystallization of organiza-
tion. The laws of chemistry take the place of the laws of
physiology, and it is in the laboratory that a great and im-
portant portion of the observations of the mineralogist must
be conducted. Those who would gain a sound knowledge of
the inorganic substances found in nature, should avail them-
selves of the instructions and exercises of the practical che-
mistry class-room as a preliminary study of essential import-
ance ; one too of no small consequence to the biologist, as well
as absolutely necessary to the physician.

In all the natural-history sciences the process of inquiry
is the same. A close and patient investigation of structure is
entered into, and a careful examination and comparison of
forms with a view to the grouping of them in natural assem-
blages, the right understanding of which exposes to us the

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great laws from the operation of which the admirable harmony
pervading nature and manifesting creative wisdom results.
Much, very much, yet remains to be done ; and there is no
fresher field for original research, and the development of a
grand philosophy, than that of natural history.

Of all the natural-history sciences Botany is the most
advanced and the most pursued. From an early period in
man’s history the attention of the observing had been directed
towards the vegetable kingdom, partly from the facilities for the
study of plants — assembled as they are in their various kinds
abundantly around us — and partly on account of their virtues,
real or imaginary. In the olden time the herborist and the
physician were one : in nations as yet unemerged from their
infant or barbarous state they are one still. The objects of the
study were at first purely utilitarian. Fanciful resemblances
to the forms or symptoms of disease furnished the principles
of botanical arrangement. But continued inquiry, even when
conducted upon false principles, led at length from empiricism
to science, and the herborist ripened into the botanist. A new
light broke upon him. Plants were no longer to be regarded
as mere depositaries of decoctions and elixirs, but were to be
examined for their own sakes. The wonders of their struc-
ture were exposed; the variety of their forms compared
and classified. Their lives were written. The vital processes,
continually going on within then bodies, were explored;
their affinities with each other and with the animal kingdom
investigated ; and their history became a store, from whence
could be drawn at pleasure numberless admirable examples of
the perfection of design in creation, and of the benevolence

and omniscience of the Creator.

This change in the object and manner of the studies of the
botanist did not, however, divorce the science from its union
with medicine. On the contrary, it bound their ties firmer

7

together. The true knowledge gained by studying the vege-
table kingdom scientifically yielded more benefit to medicine
than all the fancies and dreamy theories of the herborist. We
learned that the properties of plants were correspondent to
their natural affinities ; and the discovery of the botanical re-
lations of a species gave us. the true clue to its useful qualities.
Reason banished fancy from the selection of vegetable reme-
dies, and the gain to medical science was great indeed.

The teaching of Botany in its relations to Medicine is not
one of the least important duties of this chair. But I should
be deceiving my pupils and myself if I encouraged for a
moment the supposition that such object is to be gained by
the mingling of herboristic notions with the more scientific
parts of the subject. That the medical student acquires but
little by his attendance at botanical lectures, is not an un-
common fancy among the senior members of the profession.
Some eminent men have gone so far as to denounce it as lost
time. The utmost the student is supposed to cany away is
a knowledge of the names, classes and orders of such plants
as furnish products used in medicine. It seems to me that
the true object of the connexion of natural-history studies
with more professional pursuits is, as in this case, too generally
lost sight of, and I gladly avail myself of this opportunity to
urge their claims on your attention, and to plead for them on
grounds which have not been put forward sufficiently pro-
minently hitherto, though by no means novel, seeing that the
positions I am about to maintain are avowedly acknowledged
in private by most scientific teachers, though rarely advanced „
in the class-room. The plea which I wish to advance is, that
the main use of the natural-history sciences to the student is
not merely the teaching him a certain number of facts, the
recollection of which may be serviceable to him in after life,
but the training his mind, by means of the peculiar forms of

8

research which characterise those sciences, to that tone and
vigour which must be of the utmost consequence in giving
him powrer for future professional avocations of a different
nature, especially such as are to form the after-occupations of
the student of medicine.

Not that for a moment I would have you suppose that I
am depreciating the value of a knowledge of the facts of natu-
ral history, — far from it : I have myself derived too much
pleasure, too much benefit from an early study of that de-
lightful science not to appreciate its full value, and not to be
desirous of seeing all men acquainted with it ; but that, view-
ing it as a branch of education, I am anxious to point out in
what its true educational value lies, and not to evade the
question by enumerating how many animals, plants and
minerals a student may be able to recognise if he diligently
pursue zoology, botany, or mineralogy. A student of any
science, well-trained in the modes of investigation which that
science teaches, is a much more valuable membei of society
than a youthful encyclopedia or a living book of facts.

The two qualities most essential to the physician are correct
observation and accurate discrimination. The first depends
mainly on the power of seizing all the features of an object
or case with clearness and facility, detecting adventitious
characters at sight, and excluding such from all influence on
our conclusions. The second implies powers of just com-
parison, of perceiving the mutual relations of paits 01 facts,
and of testing the possible agreement of statements with the
circumstances wThich accompany them. Now though all men
are endowed with the elements of these qualities, all are not
born correct observers or accurate discriminators. Men must
be educated into such. The mind must be trained to reason
justly, the instruments of the mind to observe correctly. Ihe
classical and mathematical studies of our youth are not in-

9

tended merely to teach classics and mathematics, but to train
us to the business of life, and to right judgement in the higher
pursuits of men. The bodily exercises of our youth have not
for then object merely those pleasures which such exercises
afford, but the strengthening of our physical powers in order
to ensure us a healthy and vigorous manhood. The training
of the mind makes the intellectual man, the training of the
body the physical man. The end is gained in both cases by
means essentially distinct from that end. Now I hold that
natural history should be regarded in a similar light among
the studies of the young physician.

The first lesson of natural history is observation. The study
of an animal or vegetable species is the perfection of obser-
vation as far as that species is concerned. The form, the sub-
stance, the qualities, the phenomena of existence, the influence
of surrounding objects, are all observed with the greatest pre-
cision, and defined so as to be capable of expression in words.
No point affecting that species is left mi touched. The study
of a group or genus of animals or vegetables is in like manner
the perfection of discrimination. All the members of the group
are compared in all their parts with each other, the relations
which they have in common are summed up, and their differ-
ences recorded in every possible point of view. The causes of
those relations and differences are anxiously inquired mto, and
a survey is taken of the bearings of the whole group to its
proximate allies, and, finally, to all equivalent assemblages in
organized nature.

Who can rise up from such a study and not feel mentally
strengthened ? The mind through such an exercise must gam
in both its analytic and synthetic powers. Such an inves-
tigation calls into action all the faculties, the perfectionizing
of which is essential to the formation of a sound physician.
The mental process is the same at the bed-side of the patient

10

and in the cabinet of the naturalist : its first element, correct
observation, leading to correct diagnosis ; the second, accurate
discrimination, leading to sound methods of treatment in the
one case and philosophical views of affinity in the other.

It may be objected, that the student had much better learn
all this at the bed-side than among fields and flowers. To
this I would answer, that no training is so strengthening as
that which separates the process from the object of the pro-
cess. I believe the confounding of the two has been a great
evil in medical education. It leads to habits of loose reason-
ing, and blunts the most valuable power of detecting fallacies.
Too many professional works notoriously abound in bad logic
resulting from such confusion. May we not remedy this defect
by making the scientific branches of medical study — the col-
lateral sciences as they are termed — means of educating the
mind of the student, so as to enable him to enter on his prac-
tice with a truer eye and sounder judgement ? It is well known
that medical men wrho have had the benefit of a good scho-
lastic education previous to the commencement of their pro-
fessional studies enter upon the latter doubly armed, and
throughout life often maintain their superiority over their
brethren equal or even superior in natural talent, though
wanting the benefit of such training. May we not remedy
the defect in the case of the latter, and specialize the superi-
ority of the former by means of the mental exercise afforded
by the study of natural history ? I do not mean that men
should be made naturalists before entering on their medical
studies, but that the practical and more abstract branches of the
medical curriculum should be pursued equally together, and
that, while the acquiring of professional information is a grand
object of the student’s pursuits, the training which gives the
power to apply that information with precision be not lost sight
of, but occupy a prominent place in the division of his time.

11

And here I would say a word or two on the propriety of
the physician and surgeon combining scientific with profes-
sional knowledge. A time was when an acquaintance with the
purely practical parts of their profession was all too many
medical practitioners thought it necessary to acquire. This
degrading idea was favoured by the non-professional public,
and to gain a prominent position in literature or science was
too often to close the gates of professional success. But that
time is either gone by or is fast waning away. That profes-
sion, the investigations of which involve some of the deepest
problems in human philosophy, must become more and more
scientific every day. Sound education in literature and sci-
entific instruction in his profession are fast elevating the cha-
racter of the medical student ; and, in the end, an unscientific
practitioner will become as rare as a medical sceptic. One
great evil which has tended to retard the intellectual advance-
ment of the medical student, especially in this great city, has
been the separation of his studies from all association with the
pursuits of the scholar and the philosopher. The air of a
hospital is mentally unwholesome, unless mingled with a full
proportion of collegiate atmosphere. The very neighbourhood
of literary and scientific studies has a purifying and elevating
effect on the mind of the student.

In eastern cities men are grouped into castes, each confined
to one occupation and inhabiting one quarter. Civilization is
thereby impeded : men's minds become narrowed into mecha-
nical modes of thinking, and, in the end, the whole nation
suffers. Is there not something of the same kind in exclusive
professional education ? — a contraction of the mind, from its
association during the most active and impressible phase of
its earthly existence with such minds only as are absorbed in
similar pursuits ? Shut out from the spirit of letters, of
science and of art, exclusively occupied with one set of thoughts

12

ancl practices, the man sinks into the drudge. But when the
student finds he is marching onwards to the goal of knowledge
along with a numerous company of youthful seekers after
truth in all its varied forms, marshalled by skilful and earnest
leaders, whose discipline alike regards their morals and their
intellect, his mind warms in its sympathies, and extends its
appreciation beyond its own special duties to a participation
in those of its companions. Such a progress may be looked
for as the result of the system followed in this Institution •
and the young physician and surgeon who have been educated
within its halls will have the high gratification of entering on
the duties of life a scholar, a man of science, and a man of
taste ; and, above all, imbued with sound principles of re-
ligion and morality.

What I have said in regard to the importance of the
natural-history sciences, more especially botany, the most
advanced, as training studies, is not merely applicable to the
medical profession, but also to all other pursuits, whether
general or professional. Professor Daubeny, in the excellent
essay which he has just published on the writings and philo-
sophical character of the great botanist of Geneva, DeCandolle,

" hose recent death has been so severely felt by the scientific
world, well remarks on his science, that, “ if prosecuted in a
philosophical spirit and with a constant reference to first
principles, it might be capable of serving an important pur-
pose in training and disciplining the mind of the student.”

Though it seems to me that the greatest benefit his bota-
nical studies confer on the medical student is the making him
a correct observer and careful reasoner, there is a fact-know-
ledge which he can derive from them of the greatest conse-
quence in his profession. There are more than 300 species
of plants which furnish substances used as articles of Materia
Medica. The power of distinguishing these various species

13

from each other must be of consequence to him who has to
make use of their products. Medical men are expected to be
able to refer each item of the Pharmacopoeia, which may be
derived from the animal or vegetable kingdom, to the par-
ticular species of animal or plant by which it is contributed ;
to assign every such species to its family and class ; and to be
acquainted with their constitution and the general characters
of the beings included within their bounds. A knowledge of
botany enables us to distinguish such plants as are harmless
or nutritive in their properties from such as are deleterious or
poisonous. This knowledge is not often called for in the
ordinary routine of medical practice, but to those who enter
either of the services it may become of great consequence.
The army or navy surgeon, when in the field or at sea, is not
unfrequently thrown upon the resources of his early studies.
During the perils of warfare he may find himself in situations
when a stray recollection, derived from his former pursuit of
the collateral sciences, may put it within his power to afford
substantial relief to his suffering comrades. Even the wisdom
of the herborist is then of value. When famine or sickness is
raging, it is often within the power of the medical naturalist
to alleviate its horrors, to select the wholesome herb from
among the poisonous, or to find a substitute for medicine
among the indigenous plants of the country when the medicine-
chest is exhausted or plundered. Every naturalist who has
wandered among the wilds of a half-civilized land must re-
collect times, when any little information he could give on the
nutritive or medicinal properties of its productions was grate-
fully and with avidity received by its poor inhabitants. To
feel that we can alleviate distress, or add a comfort, is a
pleasure which lasts throughout life, and the recollection of
which is as refreshing to the giver as the succour was to the

receiver.

14

Botany then is of importance to the medical man as a
means of acquiring a knowledge of the sources of such re-
medies as are derived from the vegetable kingdom. An im-
portant part of the duty of the Professor is to teach the
student how he is to gain that knowledge ; the exposition of its
results rather belongs to the office of the Professor of Materia
Medica, and I need not remind you that few combine such
an extensive and original knowledge of that branch of medical
inquiry, with a profound acquaintance with botanical science,
as my eminent colleague in that department.

A knowledge of the facts of botany is of importance also to
the agriculturist and the chemist, and even to the man of the
world it may afford profit and pleasure. To the first the prin-
ciples, at least, of physiological botany are necessary if he
would rightly understand what he is about. The union be-
tween botany and agriculture is every day drawn closer, and in
these times, when we find the once distinct characters of the
country gentleman and man of science so often and so honour-
ably combined, botanical and chemical science have become
essential parts of his education. The researches of the chemist
are now more than ever directed to the investigation of orga-
nized bodies, and a knowledge of the principles of vegetable
physiology is a necessary aid to the success of his inquiries.

The man of the world, whose time is at his own disposal, and
whose year is in part devoted to foreign travel, will find a
knowledge of botany a new source of pleasure. All who have
journeyed much in foreign lands have felt the delight of ex-
amining some beautiful and strange flower, when crossing some
wide and dreary tract of country, such as every here and there
we meet with on the continent ; and many an idler has been
metamorphosed into a man of science by the recollection of
the satisfaction he had derived from such accidental direction
of his attention to the minuter beauties of nature, and from

15

the desire to renew the pleasure he then experienced. As
long ago as the days of the first King James, the most chival-
rous nobleman in England wrote in his autobiography, “it
is a fine study and worthy of a gentleman to be a good bo-
tanic*.”

The utility of a study of botany to the zoologist and geolo-
gist cannot be too highly estimated. The perfection to which
the labours of Linnaeus, DeJussieu, DeCandolle and their
numerous co-labourers and pupils have brought systematic
botany, furnishes the zoologist with a sound model on which
to mould the descriptive part of his science, but one with which
he is usually I fear too slightly acquainted to make good use
of. Zoology has yet to attain the precision to which botany
so rapidly advanced through the logical acuteness of the
great minds who embraced the study, — a precision greatly
forwarded by the general knowledge of their subject which
they considered it their duty to acquire before they engaged in
original special research. The perfection to which botanical
diagnosis has attained is truly astonishing. More than
50,000 species of known plants are distinguished from each
other by short summaries of their essential characters, some-
times occupying but a few words, and at most but a few lines.
Yet there is no confusion. The printed diagnosis is suffi-
ciently precise to enable the student to ascertain the name and
affinities of any plant he may gather even without the help
of figures or other artificial aid. That zoological science may
attain an equal degree of precision, no thinking naturalist can
for a moment doubt ; but until more zoologists than now do,
study the principles by which such precision has been attained,
their science must rest in the unsatisfactory state which de-
forms great portions of it at present.

The importance of a knowledge of botanical science to the
* Lord Herbert.

16

geologist rests on different grounds. Perhaps to him its great-
est value may lie in conferring that training which I have advo-
cated in commenting on the botanical studies of the physician.
But it is also of the greatest use in enabling him to under-
stand the nature and relations of the numerous fossil remains
of vegetables imbedded in the earth’s strata, and the exami-
nation of which affords such important data for determining
the relative ages of formations, and the conditions under which
they were formed. When we recollect that the great beds of
coal, which furnish such a valuable item in the list of our
economical comforts, have been derived from the destruction of
ancient herbs and trees, we must view with astonishment the
important part played by the vegetable kingdom in contribu-
ting to the substance of the earth’s crust.

The history of botany, from the time it first assumed a
scientific character to its palmy state in the present century,
is more instructive than that of any of the other natural-his-
tory sciences, though later in its development ; for among the
ancients, its most eminent votaries, Theophrastus and Dio-
scorides, were rather herborists than botanists, and originated
no grand generalizations like those which gave the first im-
pulse to zoological science, nursed by the giant mind and in-
defatigable research of Aristotle. But though zoology started
with the speed of the hare, botany, like the slow tortoise, at
length overtook it in the race, and the heavy volumes of
Bauhin, Gerard and Caesalpinus were all so many steps on the
way. It first quickened its speed as a science of observation.
Ardent naturalists went forth into foreign climes, and collected
their vegetable products with indefatigable industry, noting
carefully their living forms and hues. Others, tied down by
the trammels of home-occupation, gathered the plants of their
native countries and recorded their variations. Confused
ideas of natural affinities clouded their early arrangements,

17

but from the material so accumulated truer notions were in time
generated. The good and kind-hearted rather than the strong-
minded were the first votaries of the science. The gentleness
of the pursuit was adapted to the kindliness of their natures.
Their earnest unbiassed studies originating in the admiration
of the wonders and beauties of creation, and deep reverence for
the great Origin of all things, were the corner-stones of botanical
science, and on such a sound and firm foundation the super-
structure could not fail to be nobly and speedily raised. In
time the building was commenced ; Ray, Tournefort, and a
host of lovers of nature laid the first stones. Linnaeus and
Jussieu were the chosen architects.

The great Swede, whose many-sided mind made all the
science of his time contribute to his grand purpose of develop-
ing the system of nature, saw at a glance, that though there
was much material collected, more must be continually
gathering, and that to make good and rapid use of what had
been drawn together, machinery was wanting.

“ Instruments et auxiliis res pcrficietur : quibus opus est
nihilominus ad intellectum quam ad manum*.”

Linnseus invented the required instruments and aids.
Whilst he taught that the grand aim of botany should be the
discovery of the true arrangement of plants in nature, and
boldly sketched his idea of what he conceived that arrange-
ment would prove to be, — in order that such great end might
be the more speedily attained, he devised two ingenious arti-
ficial schemes, which, as he foresaw, led to the desired results.
These were the binomial nomenclature, and the classification
of plants according to the number or arrangement of their
sexual organs.

The first of these inventions, the simplicity of which is that
characteristic of all the creations of genius, became the great -
* Bacon, Nov. Org. lib. i. aph. 2.

B

18

est means of furthering the progress of natural history. It
was endowing it with a universal language, in which all its
followers might converse with perfect mutual understanding.
The distinctions of nation and tongue were abolished by this
admirable scheme, the universal and simultaneous adoption of
which at once proclaimed its own excellence and that of its
author.

The second was, as it were, the making of an index to a great
section of the book of nature. Those who slightingly think
of the Linnsean system, as it is termed, forget in the present
to look back fully and fairly on the past. They should remind
themselves of the state in which botany was when Linnaeus
undertook to make its treasures consumable. The understand-
ing of things depends greatly on the perception of their order
and relations. When that order and those relations require
deep study ere we can comprehend them clearly, the man who
gives us a clue, however insignificant it may be in its own
nature, is not only conferring on us an invaluable benefit, but
endowing the despised instrument ’with golden value. Such
a clue did Linnaeus give when he put forth the sexual system.
The scientific systematist, surrounded by the stores of his
herbarium, should not forget that those treasures were often
amassed in the first instance by adventurous and earnest men,
rendering good service by their hands and energy , as good in its
humble way as that which he gives by his head and philosophy.
It was not to be expected of such men that in the field they
should occupy themselves with thoughts of arrangement or
affinity ; their part was to observe and select, and the guide to
their observation and selection was in most cases no other
than the Linmean system. In the scientific hive as in the
apiary there must be working-bees and neuters as well as
queens and drones : it is necessary for the economy of the
commonwealth. An easy means of acquiring and arranging

19

information is a great help to the workmen of science, and
no department has gained more thereby than botany, which,
through the facilities afforded by the artificial method devised
by Linnaeus, has had its facts amassed in enormous quantity
for the use of its more philosophic votaries, and owes its
present advanced state in a great measure to such humble
means.

The clue to the labyrinth, then, having served such noble
purpose becomes a consecrated object, and should rather be
hung up in the temple than thrown aside with ignominy. The
traveller returning from his adventurous and perilous journey
of discovery, hangs up his knapsack with affection on the
wall of his study. But travellers must return to the fields,
if more is to be done ; and so must botanists, and each must
have recourse again and again to those helps which aided them
so well in their earliest journeys.

In saying these few words in favour of the Linnscan system,
I know I am pleading an unpopular cause ; but I speak out
freely, partly because I mean to proceed on a different basis
in conducting the botanical studies here, and partly because,
after the once over-enthusiastic attachment to the Linnaean
method which prevailed so long in Britain, and which was
carried so far as to impede the progress of botany, a reaction
has taken place which threatens to blind the eyes of the
younger botanists to the merits of a device which was, and
ever will be, a most valuable auxiliary of the science.

The aim of Jussieu was of a different kind. Gifted with a
highly philosophic mind, he concentrated its powers mainly
on one subject. His devotion produced great results. lie’'
placed the study of the natural affinities of plants on a practi-
cal basis, and originated those views afterwards more fully
developed by DeCandolle and other distinguished men. The
spirit of Jussieu has presided over the greatest botanical works

n 2

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clown to the present day, and his influence is as powerful
now as when he first expounded to his delighted pupils just
views of the vegetable kingdom.

The genius and doctrines of Linnaeus and Jussieu having
placed botany on a sure scientific basis, hosts of labourers
crowded to the field, and the enthusiastic pupils and admirers
of those great men went forth observing and collecting over
every discovered land. The facts they added demanded new
research and modified arrangements. Still the great stage of
classification had been attained, and the science was to enter
on the third sera of its existence, that of philosophical inves-
tigation. In that sera we now live. Its characters are — the
observation of facts, not so much for their own sakes as for
the illustrations they afford of the laws of the science ; careful
experimental inquiries into the phsenomena of vegetation, not
undertaken as isolated researches, but with a view to their com-
parison with vital phsenomena throughout animated nature ;
minute anatomical investigation under the microscope, not
conducted merely to display new forms of structure, but in the
hope of solving, if possible, the problem of the ultimate struc-
ture of tissues ; the construction of local floras and publica-
tion of local catalogues, not with the limited view of assisting
the inhabitants of a province to a knowledge of their vegetable
compatriots, or with the pardonable vanity of shoving how
many fine plants grow in the author’s country, but in order
that the great laws of the distribution of organized beings on
the surface of our globe may be discovered and developed ;
and the construction of systematic arrangements, not framed
solely for the ascertaining of the natural alliances of families,
important as such object is, but also with the view of dis-
covering the great laws which doubtless regulate those alli-
ances equally in the animal and vegetable kingdoms.

Many of the conclusions which such inquiries arc yearly

21

developing, are but the confirmations of hypotheses advanced
ere philosophical investigation in botany was the rule and not
the exception. But ideas are like seeds : they do not ger-
minate until they meet with the conditions favourable to their
germination. The great moving idea of modern botanical
philosophy is that of the origin of all the appendages of the
vegetable axis in the transformation of the leaf, their normal
type! Linnaeus himself put it forth in his f Philosopliia
Botanica’ : —

“Principium florum et foliorum idem est : Prin-

CIPIUM GEMMARUM ET FOLIORUM IDEM EST : GEMMA CON-
STAT FOLIORUM RUDIMENTIS. PeRIANTIIIUM SIT EX CON-
NATIS FOLIORUM RUDIMENTIS.”*

Thus aphoristically did Linnaeus proclaim the grand doc-
trine of morphology, the influence of which in science, strange
to say, was not to be exerted until Goethe, himself a second
discoverer of the truth, had proclaimed it anew in a poem.
When the prince of naturalists proposed it, the time had not
arrived for its appreciation. It lay dormant until the genius
of a poet roused it into life and activity.

In like manner, many of the more remarkable botanical
theories, propounded within the last few years, have been but
the expansions of the original ideas briefly expressed and put
forth without parade in the scattered memoirs of that great
living botanist, of whom England should be so proud, who
has been hailed from afar — the whole botanical world appro-
ving— with the well-earned title of “ Botanicorum Facile
Princeps.”

1

The three phases of botanical science displayed in its hi-
story, Observation, Classification and Philosophical
Investigation, are the types of the stages through which
* Phil. Bot. p. 301. Metamorphosis Vegetabilis.

O

22

we must successively pass in the course of our botanical
studies. The student must base his science on a correct ac-
quaintance with the forms and structures of plants, and the
phenomena of vegetation considered in reference to the vege-
table kingdom alone. He must then become familiar with
the various families, orders and classes into which the genera
and species of plants are grouped; and lastly, having ac-
quired the necessary preliminary knowledge, he is prepared
to enter upon the philosophy of the science, the inquiries in-
volved in the subjects of morphology, teretology, anamorphosis
and distribution. Yet, though these most interesting depart-
ments of botany cannot be fully comprehended until the pre-
liminary knowledge of structure and forms is acquired, the
interest they give to the drier inquiries is such, that while
the connected theoretical consideration of them must be re-
served for the final portions of the Course, I shall make a
point, when treating of the facts of physiological and syste-
matic botany, of exhibiting, in all possible cases, the bearings
of the latter on the higher departments of botanical science.

In conclusion : whatever the ultimate view of the student
respecting the intention of his botanical studies may be,
whether to enter upon them as exercises for the training of
those faculties which are afterwards to be applied to profes-
sional purposes ; or to engage in them with a determination of
pursuing botany as a science, and, in the end, developing its
laws ; or to gain an acquaintance with its facts in order to lay
up an intellectual treasure for future hours of recreation or
study in a life of business or leisure, — I woidd remind him
earnestly to bear in mind, at the same time, the more serious
benefits which may accrue from the study of Botany. That
which Lord Bacon said of all knowledge is especially true of
this department, that it “ is not a couch whereupon to rest a

23

searching and restless spirit ; or a terrace for a wandering and
variable mind to walk np and down with a fair prospect ; or a
tower of state for a prond mind to raise itself upon ; or a fort
or commanding ground for strife and contention ; or a shop
for profit or sale ; — but a rich storehouse for the glory of the
Creator and the relief of man’s estate.”

IHE END.

Printed by Richard and John E. Taylor, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street.

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