PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY.

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idlers. He is far less original in his views than Thouars,Turpin, Agardh, Nees von Essenbeck, or Oken, and indescription, Gaudichaud is far more vigorous and distinct.As regards his accuracy, this cannot be so easily andreadily decided upon, as to exert any striking influenceupon the judgment of the reader. Thus, e. g. in thefirst edition of his book, he follows the theory of theFrench botanists on the stem, which he certainly defineswith more minuteness; and in the treating of the stem ofthe Palm, he criticises what I have said upon the subject,but without supporting his remarks by any original ob-servations. Original writers are certainly not those whohave produced most benefit to science, whilst on the otherhand they have frequently retarded its progress, and Ishould not consider it as any recommendation, were anyone to assert that Schleiden was original in his botanicalremarks. On the whole, he recommends the criticalmethod, in fact, considers it as the only correct one; butwe cannot possibly conceive criticism without somepreceding system; in fact, it is quite opposed to pecu-liarity and originality. It is highly valuable, and weshould be grateful to the author’s ingenuity if he allowedhis criticisms to be decided and severe, but free from suchextravagancies, which impair rather than increase theeffect they produce. The observations of any -writer uponnatural history, who only describes what he has seen, arevery valuable; but it would be impossible to re-institutea science from the study of nature alone. In makinginvestigations we must know what to observe, and thismust be acquired from instruction, and finally frombooks. Without these means we should merely makediscoveries which had long been known. Had it notbeen learned from books, we should not have been awarethat iodine colours starch blue. I was deprived of thisresource in my earlier researches, and it has since provedof much service in science. It is too great an exaggera-tion, nay, it is even false, to assert that books cherish adisingenuousness and tendencv to dissimulation which

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