PREFACE.

XVH

is in other points less pleasing to a tender anddelicate mind. In botany all is elegance anddelight. No painful, disgusting, unhealthy ex-periments or inquiries are to be made. Itspleasures spring up under our feet, and, as wepursue them, reward us with health and serenesatisfaction. None but the most foolish or de-praved could derive any thing from it but whatis beautiful, or pollute its lovely scenery withunamiable or unhallowed images. Those whodo so, either from corrupt taste or maliciousdesign, can be compared only to the fiend en-tering into the garden of Eden.

Let us turn from this odious picture to thecontemplation of Nature , ever new, ever abun-dant in inexhaustible variety. Whether wescrutinize the damp recesses of woods in thewintry months, when the numerous tribes ofmosses are displaying their minute but highlyinteresting structure ; whether we walk forth inthe early spring, when the ruby tips of the haw-thorn-bush give the first sign of its approachingvegetation, or a little after, when the violetwelcomes us with its scent, and the primrosewith its beauty ; whether we contemplate insuccession all the profuse flowery treasures of

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