Proserpina, Volume 1: Studies of Wayside Flowers, While the Air was Yet Pure Among the Alps and in the Scotland and England Which My Father KnewRuskin, John
Science
Proserpina, Volume 1: Studies of Wayside Flowers, While the Air was Yet Pure Among the Alps and in the Scotland and England Which My Father Knew
Ruskin, John
Flowers; Plants
32. Lastly will come the orders of flowers which may be thought of as
belonging for the most part to the Dark Kora of the lower world,--having at
least the power of death, if not its terror, given them, together with
offices of comfort and healing in sleep, or of strengthening, if not too
prolonged, action on the nervous power of life. Of these, the first will be
the DIONYSIDAE,--Hedera, Vitis, Liana; then the DRACONIDAE,--Atropa,
Digitalis, Linaria; and, lastly, the MOIRIDAE,--Conium, Papaver, Solanum,
Arum, and Nerium.
33. As I see this scheme now drawn out, simple as it is, the scope of it
seems not only far too great for adequate completion by my own labour, but
larger than the time likely to be given to botany by average scholars would
enable them intelligently to grasp: and yet it includes, I suppose, not the
tenth part of the varieties of plants respecting which, in competitive
examination, a student of physical science is now expected to know, or at
least assert on hearsay, _something_.
So far as I have influence with the young, myself, I would pray them to be
assured that it is better to know the habits of one plant than the names of
a thousand; and wiser to be happily familiar with those that grow in the
nearest field, than arduously cognisant of all that plume the isles of the
Pacific, or illumine the Mountains of the Moon. {201}
Nevertheless, I believe that when once the general form of this system in
Proserpina has been well learned, much other knowledge may be easily
attached to it, or sheltered under the eaves of it: and in its own
development, I believe everything may be included that the student will
find useful, or may wisely desire to investigate, of properly European
botany. But I am convinced that the best results of his study will be
reached by a resolved adherence to extreme simplicity of primal idea, and
primal nomenclature.
34. I do not think the need of revisal of our present scientific
classification could be more clearly demonstrated than by the fact that
laurels and roses are confused, even by Dr. Lindley, in the mind of his
feminine readers; the English word laurel, in the index to his first volume
of Ladies' Botany, referring them to the cherries, under which the common
laurel is placed as 'Prunus Laurocerasus,' while the true laurel, 'Laurus
nobilis,' must be found in the index of the second volume, under the Latin
form 'Laurus.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account