B.Lab 508.12 Ratan, bab 1898 June 23 H. U. Herbarium DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, TO WIT: SEAL BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the thirteenth day of February, in the thirty sixth year of the independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1812, Benjamin Smith Barton, M. D. of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words following, to wit: "Elements of Botany: or Outlines of the Natural History of Vegetables. Illustrated by forty plates. By Benjamin Smith Barton, M. D. President of the Philadelphia Linnean and Medical Societies; one of the VicePresidents of the American Philosophical Society; Member of the Imperial Society of Naturalists at Moscow in Russia; and Professor of Materia Medica, Natural History, and Botany, in the University of Pennsylvania. The second edition, corrected and greatly enlarged. In two volumes. Vol. I." In conformity to the act of the congress of the United States, intituled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned." And also to the act, entitled "An act supplementary to an act, entitled, “an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the time therein mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." 4 TO THE STUDENTS OF MEDICINE, IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA; AND TO THE LOVERS AND CULTIVATORS OF NATURAL HISTORY, IN EVERY PART OF THE UNITED-STATES, THESE ELEMENTS OF BOTANY ARE VERY RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, BY BENJAMIN SMITH BARTON. Philadelphia, February 28th, 1803. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. The Lectures on MATERIA MEDICA, and those on NATURAL HISTORY*, commence, annu̟ally, in the first week of November, and terminate in the first week of March. These are two distinct Courses of Lectures. PREFACE. IN the year 1789, the Trustees of the College of Philadelphia instituted a PROFESSORSHIP OF NATURAL HISTORY AND BOTANY. I was honoured with the appointment of teaching these branches of science, the first of which had never before been taught in the Institution*. Upon the union of the College with the University of Pennsylvania, in the year 1791, my former appointment was confirmed by the trustees of the united institution; and in the year 1796, I received a new mark of the attention of the trustees, by their appointing me to fill the chair of MATERIA MEDICA, which was rendered vacant by the resignation of the professor of that branch of medical science. THE different branches of Natural History, particularly Zoology and Botany, have been my favourite studies, from a very early period of my life. The happiest hours of near sixteen years of cares, of difficulties, or of sickness, have been devoted to the cultivation of these interesting sciences. During this long period, I have never ceased to look forward, as I still look forward, with an ardent satisfaction, to the time, when Natural History shall be taught as an indispensible branch of science, in our university: when it shall cease to "yield its Several courses of lectures on Botany had formerly been delivered, in the College of Philadelphia, by Dr. Adam Kuhn, one of the pupils of the great Linnæus. "laurels to languages which are withered or dead, and "to studies, that are useless or ignoble*." THAT period has not yet arrived. I have, however, the satisfaction of observing, that these sciences are making some, nay even great, advances among us; and I still flatter myself, that the directors of our principal American universities, or other seminaries of learning, but, in particular, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania (IN WHICH ALL THE BRANCHES OE ME DICAL SCIENCE ARE TAUGHT MUCH MORE EXTEN SIVELY THAN IN ANY OTHER PART OF THE UNITEDSTATES), will see the propriety, and even necessity, of giving more substantial encouragement for the extension of Natural History among us. It was with the view of contributing something to this desirable end, that I undertook the arduous task of composing these ELEMENTS OF BOTANY: a task certainly arduous for one who is engaged in the practice of an anxious and difficult profession; occupied for near seven months of the year in the duties of teaching in the University, and, withal, subject to repeated attacks of a violent and dangerous discase. The work is now presented to the public. I cannot but be somewhat solicitous about it: I cannot "dismiss it with frigid tranquillity:" but I will not tremble for its fate. Should the work confer no reputation upon me, I am still young enough to hope, that reputation may be obtained by fu ture efforts. See Fragments of the Natural History of Pennsylvania. Part I. Int. p. viii. † Dr. Johnson. |