James Edward Smith

“ By buds indeed, as we well know, plants are propagated, and in that sense each bud is a separate being, or a young plant in itself; but such propagation is only the extension of an individual, and not a reproduction of the species as by seed. Accordingly, all plants increased by buds, cuttings, layers or roots, retain precisely the peculiar qualities of the individual to which they owe their origin. If those qualities differ from what are common to the species, sufficiently to constitute what is called a variety, that variety is perpetuated through all the progeny thus obtained. ”

“ In the mean while plenty of barren flowers are produced on a distinct root, on short straight stalks, from which they rise like little separate white bubbles, suddenly expanding when they reach the surface, and floating about in such abundance as to cover it entirely. Thus their pollen is scattered over the stigmas of the first-mentioned blossoms, whose stalks soon afterwards resume their spiral figure, and the fruit comes to maturity at the bottom of the water. ”

“ We are no longer in the infancy of science, in which its utility, not having been proved, might be doubted, nor is it for this that I contend. I would recommend botany for its own sake. I have often alluded to its benefits as a mental exercise, nor can any study exceed it in raising curiosity, gratifying a taste for beauty and ingenuity of contrivance, or sharpening the powers of discrimination. What then can be better adapted for young persons? The chief use of a great part of our education is no other than what I have just mentioned. ”

“ I shall not labour to prove how delightful and instructive it is to
"Look through Nature up to Nature's God."
Neither, surely, need I demonstrate, that if any judicious or improved use is to be made of the natural bodies around us, it must be expected from those who discriminate their kinds and study their properties. Of the benefits of natural science in the improvement of many arts, no one doubts. Our food, our physic, our luxuries are improved by it. By the enquiries of the curious new acquisitions are made in remote countries, and our resources of various kinds are augmented. ”

“ Whether we scrutinize the damp recesses of woods in the wintry months, when the numerous tribes of mosses are displaying their minute, but highly interesting structure; whether we walk forth in the early spring, when the ruby tips of the hawthorn-bush give the first sign of its approaching vegetaion, or a little after, when the violet welcomes us with its scent, and the primrose with its beauty; whether we contemplate in succession all the profuse flowery treasures of the summer, or the more hidden secrets of Nature at the season when fruits and seeds are forming ”

“ Darwin calls the Corolla the lungs of the stamens and pistils, and with great probability, for they abound in air-vessels. But when we consider the elaborate and peculiar secretions of a flower, the elastic and inflammable pollen, the honey, and the exquisitely volatile perfume, as we know from the curious discoveries of modern chemistry how great a share light has in the production of such, we cannot but conclude that the petals must be of primary importance with respect to their secretion by its means. ”

“ In an hour's time, from some unknown cause, a joint, a whole branch, or sometimes an entire plant of the Nopal, changes from apparent health to a state of putrefaction or dissolution. One minute its surface is verdant and shining; the next it turns yellow, and all its brilliancy is gone. On cutting into its substance, the inside is found to have lost all cohesion, being quite rotten. ”

“ When we take into consideration the multitude of species which compose the vegetable kingdom, even in any one country or climate, it is obvious that some arrangement, some regular mode of naming and distinguishing them, must be very desirable, and even necessary, for retaining them in our own memory, or for communicating to others any thing concerning them. Yet the antients have scarcely used any further classification of plants than the vague and superficial division into trees, shrubs and herbs, except a consideration of their places of growth, and also of their qualities. ”

“ Besides the above purposes, I have always conceived the Corolla to fulfil some important office to the essential parts of the flower with respect to air, and especially light. It not only presents itself in a remarkable manner to the sun-beams, frequently closing or drooping when they are withdrawn, but it is so peculiarly distinguished by beauty or brilliancy of colour, that one cannot but think its functions somewhat different from those of the leaves, even with regard to light itself. ”

“ That every path tending to ends so desirable may be accessible, I have not confined myself to systematical subjects, wide and various as they are, but I have introduced the anatomy and physiology of plants to the botanical student, wishing to combine all these several objects; so far as least that those who do not cultivate them all, may be sensible of the value of each in itself, and that no disgraceful rivalship or contempt, the offspring of ignorance, may be felt by the pursuers of any to the prejudice of the rest. ”

“ It is scarcely necessary to repeat that the fructification is essential to vegetables. A plant may be destitute of stem, leaves, or even roots, because, if one of these parts be wanting, the others may perform its functions, but it can never be destitute of those organs by which its species is propagated. Hence, though many individual plants may be long without blossoms, there are none, so far as nature has been thoroughly investigated, that are not capable, in favourable circumstances, of producing them, as well as seeds; to whose perfection the blossoms themselves are altogether subservient. ”

“ The extension of the cuticle is astonishing, if we consider that it is formed, as Grew well observes, on the tenderest embryo, and only extended during the growth of the plant, and that it appears not to have any connexion with the vascular or living part of the vegetable body. But though so accommodating in those parts where it is wanted, on the old trunks of most trees it cracks in every direction, and in many is entirely obliterated, the old dead layers of their bark performing all the requisite offices of a cuticle. ”

“ If the ground in old-established botanic gardens be dug much deeper than ordinary, it frequently happens that species which have been long lost are recovered, from their seeds being latent in the soil, as I have been assured by Mr. Fairbairn of Chelsea garden, and others.
The integuments of the seed, having fulfilled their destined office of protection, burst and decay. The young root is the first part of the infant plant that comes forth, and by an unerring law of Nature it is sent downwards, to seek out nourishment as well as to fix the plant to the ground. ”

“ In order to conceive how the sap can be so powerfully conveyed as it is through the vessels in which it flows, from the root of a tall tree to its highest branches, we must take into consideration the action of heat. We all know that this is necessary to the growth and health of plants; and that it requires to be nicely adjusted in degree, in order to suit the constitutions of different tribes of plants destined for different parts of the globe. ”

“ Indeed I have never seen any fruit formed by this plant. Probably for want of some insect adapted to the same purpose in its own country, the American Aristolochia Sipho, though it flowers plentifully, never forms fruit in our gardens.
The ways in which insects serve the same purpose are innumerable. These active little beings are peculiarly busy about flowers in bright sunny weather, when every blossom is expanded, the pollen in perfection, and all the powers of vegetation in their greatest vigour. ”

“ The giver and the receiver are alike invulnerable, as well as inaccessible, to "envy jealousy or rivalship," and may pardon their attacks without an effort.
The natural history of animals, in many respects even more interesting than botany to man as an animated being, and more striking in some of the phænomena which it displays, is in other points less pleasing to a tender and delicate mind. In botany all is elegance and delight. ”

“ A botanist who, by the strength of his own superior knowledge and authority, reforms and elucidates a whole tribe of plants hitherto in confusion, as a Hedwig in Mosses, or Acharius in Lichens, ought to be unshackled in every point in which he can be of service. His wisdom will be evinced by extreme caution and reserve in using his liberty with respect to new names, but more especially new terms; and, after all, he will be amenable to the general tribunal of botanists, and the judgment of those who come after him. ”

“ Whatever difficulties may attend these genera, how admirably does the fruit serve us in Rosa, Rubus, Dryas and Geum, to discriminate those whose leaves, flowers, and habit all stamp them as distinct! A student cannot do better than to study this order and these genera, as an introduction to the knowledge of more obscure ones; and the beautiful plants which compose it, mostly familiar to every body, are easily obtained. ”

“ A Genus comprehends one or more species, so essentially different in formation, nature, and often many adventitious qualities, from other plants, as to constitute a distinct family or kind, no less permanent, and founded in the immutable laws of the creation, than the different species of such a genus. ”

“ The fruit is replete, not only with acid, mucilage and sugar, but with its own peculiar aromatic and highly volatile secretion, elaborated within itself, on which its fine flavour depends. How far are we still from understanding the whole anatomy of the vegetable body, which can create and keep separate such distinct and discordant substances!
Nothing is more astonishing than the secretion of flinty earth by plants, which though never suspected till within a few years, appears to me well ascertained. ”

“ Nevertheless Linnæus, and all true philosophical botanists since the first mention of the natural affinities of plants, have ever considered them as the most important and interesting branch, or rather the fundamental part, of systematical botany. Without them the science is truly a study of words, contributing nothing to enlarge, little worthy to exercise, a rational mind. ”

“ The Seeds are the sole "end and aim" of all the organs of fructification. Every other part is, in some manner, subservient to the forming, perfecting, or dispersing of these. A seed consists of several parts, some of which are more essential than others, and of these I shall speak first.
Embryo, the Embryo, or Germ, is the most essential of all, to which the rest are wholly subservient, and without which no seed is perfect, or capable of vegetation, however complete in external appearance. ”

“ Every deciduous tree or shrub exhibits the very same phænomenon; for the fall of their decaying foliage in autumn, leaving the branches and young buds vigorous and healthy, can be explained in no other way. ”

“ Several plants, especially with bulbous roots, which blossom abundantly in their native soils, have hitherto defied all the art of our gardeners to produce this desirable effect; yet future experience may possibly place it within our reach by some very simple means. In general, whatever checks the luxuriant production of leaf-buds, favours the formation of flowers and seeds. That variety, or perhaps species, of the Orange Lily, Lilium bulbiferum, which is most prolific in buds, seldom forms seeds, or even those organs of the flower necessary to their perfection. ”

“ Is it not a privilege to walk with God in the garden of creation, and hold converse with his providence? If such elevated feelings do not lead to the study of Nature, it cannot far be pursued without rewarding the student by exciting them.
Rousseau, a great judge of the human heart and observer of human manners, has remarked, that "when science is transplanted from the mountains and woods into cities and worldly society, it loses its genuine charms, and becomes a source of envy, jealousy and rivalship." ”

“ Though spring is the season of hope and novelty, to a naturalist more especially, yet the wise provisions and abundant resources of Nature, in the close of the year, will yield an observing mind no less pleasure, than the rich variety of her autumnal tints afford to the admirers of her external charms. The more we study the works of the Creator, the more wisdom, beauty and harmony become manifest, even to our limited apprehensions ”

“ Such a premature cold increases the sensibility of the plant to any warmth that may follow, and produces, in a degree, the same state of its constitution as exists after the longer and severer cold of winter. Let me be allowed a further illustration from the animal kingdom. Every body conversant with labouring cattle must have observed how much sooner they are exhausted by the warm days of autumn, when the nights are cold, than in much hotter weather in summer, and this is surely from the same cause as the autumnal flowing of the vegetable sap. ”

“ The same great observer, by his botanical knowledge, detected the cause of a dreadful disease among the horned cattle of the north of Lapland, which had previously been thought equally unaccountable and irremediable, and of which he has given an exquisite account in his Lapland tour, as well as under Cicuta virosa, Engl. Bot. t., in his Flora Lapponica. One man in our days, by his scientific skill alone, has given the bread-fruit to the West-Indies, and his country justly honours his character and pursuits. ”

“ In their forms Nature seems to have delighted to imitate the radiant luminary to which they are apparently dedicated, and in the absence of whose beams many of them do not expand their blossoms at all. The stately Annual Sun-flower, Helianthus annuus, displays this phænomenon more conspicuously on account of its size, but many of the tribe have greater sensibility to light. Its stem is compressed in some degree, to facilitate the movement of the flower, which, after following the sun all day, returns after sun-set to the east, by its natural elasticity, to meet his beams in the morning. ”

“ In the mean while, however, Linnæus, well aware that a natural classification was scarcely ever to be completely discovered, and that if discovered it would probably be too difficult for common use, contrived an artificial system, by which plants might conveniently be arranged, like words in a dictionary, so as to be most readily found. If all the words of a language could be disposed according to their abstract derivations, or grammatical affinities, such a performance might be very instructive to a philosopher, but would prove of little service to a young scholar ”

“ Independently of all general methods of classification, whether natural or artificial, plants, as well as animals, are distinguished into Genera [1] , Species, and Varieties.
By Species are understood so many individuals, or, among the generality of animals, so many pairs, as are presumed to have been formed at the creation, and have been perpetuated ever since; for though some animals appear to have been exterminated, we have no reason to suspect any new species has been produced ”

“ We can now have a general idea how the nutritious sap, acted upon by all the agents above mentioned during its stay in the cellular substance of the leaf, and returned from thence impregnated with them into the bark, may prove the source of increase, and of peculiar secretions, in the vegetable frame. That portion of sap sent to the flower and fruit undergoes no less remarkable changes, for purposes to which those curious organs are devoted; nor is it returned from thence, as from the leaves, to answer any further end. ”

“ It is further to be observed that Linnæus, ever aware of the importance of keeping the natural affinities of plants in view, has in each of his artificial Orders, and sections of those Orders, arranged the genera according to those affinities; while at the head of each Class, in his Systema Vegetabilium, he places the same genera according to their technical characters; thus combining, as far as art can keep pace with nature, the merits of a natural and an artificial system. ”

“ But happily the laws of a drawing-room do not extend to philosophy, and we are allowed to prefer parts which we are sure to meet with at one and the same moment, without waiting a month or two, after we have made out the Class of a plant, before we can settle its Order.
The Linnæan System, however, like all human inventions, has its imperfections and difficulties. If we meet in gardens with double or monstrous flowers, whose essential organs of fructification are deformed, multiplied, or changed to petals; or if we find a solitary barren or fertile blossom only ”

“ Linnæus first insisted on generic characters being exclusively taken from the 7 parts of fructification, and he demonstrated these to be sufficient for all the plants that can be discovered. He also laid it down as a maxim, that all genera are as much founded in nature as the species which compose them; and hence follows one of the most just and valuable of all his principles, that a genus should furnish a character, not a character form a genus ”

“ We cannot but be aware that, when a branch is gathered, the sap must soon flow out of those spiral-coated tubes, which are large, elastic, and, no doubt, irritable. After they are emptied, air may unquestionably pass through them, especially when the whole weight of the atmosphere is acting, as in Dr Hales's experiments with the air-pump, upon so delicate a fabric as the internal vascular structure of a plant, forcing its way through pores or membranes not naturally designed to admit it. ”

“ But as we proceed in this path, we soon find ourselves in a labyrinth. The natural orders and families of plants, so far from being connected in a regular series, approach one another by so many points, as to bewilder instead of directing us. ”