OUTLINES OF BOTANY 



TO ACCOMPANY THE COLONIAL FLORAS. 



From Mr. Bentham's 'Flora Australiensis.' 



_ — -». 



Chap. I. Definitions and Descriptive Botany. 



■ . f ^ ie . principal object of a Flora of a country is to afford the means of deter- 

 mining (i, e . ascertaining the name of) any plant growing in it, whether for the pur- 

 P°^ of ulterior S * Udy ° r ° f intellectual exercise. 



&■ With this view, a Flora consists of descriptions of all the wild or native plants 

 C j nta ?? ed j n the country in question, so drawn up and arranged that the student may 



entity with the corresponding description any individual specimen which he may 



Hi f ^ 9e descriptions should be clear, concise, accurate, and characteristic, so us 



tnat each one should be readily adapted to the plant it relates to, and to no other one ; 



ey should be as nearly as possible arranged under natural (184) divisions, so as to 



acuitate the comparison of each plant with those nearest allied to it ; and they should 



^^ecompanied by an artificial Jcey or index, by means of which the student may be 



guided step by step in the observation of such peculiarities or characters in his plant, 



T% d him ' with the lea8t delay, *° the individual description belonging to it. 



V descriptions to be clear and readily intelligible, they should be expressed as 



uch as possible in ordinary well-established language. But, for the purpose of ac- 



uracy, it i 8 necessary not only to give a more precise technical meaning to many 



tech 18 - U8 > e( * m ° re orIess vaguely in common conversation, but also to introduce purely 



to thk names for sucn P arts of plants or forms as are of little importance except 



the botanist. In the present chapter it is proposed to define such technical or 



ec * mca lly limited terms as are made use of in these Floras. 



anrw> the 8ame time Mathematical accuracy must not be expected. The forms and 



for r a . rances turned by plants and their parts are infinite. Names cannot be invented 



au ; those even that have been proposed are too numerous for ordinary memories. 



r any are derived from supposed resemblances to well-known forms or objects. These 



oiil m ,. ances ar e differentlv appreciated by different persons, and the same term is not 



y cMerently applied by'two different botanists, but it frequently happens that the 



sam Wnt6F 18 led on different occasions to give somewhat different meanings to the 



near 6 W ° rd " The botai| i8t's endeavours should always bo, on the one hand, to make as 



avn^ a H api>r0ach to Precision as circumstances will allow ; and, on the other hand, to 



to on f • P rolix 'ty of detail and overloading with technical terms which tends rather 



ofahf " than clea ™ess. In this ho will be more or less successful. The aptness 



with n, Cal description, like the beauty of a work of imagination, will always vary 



tne style and genius of the author. 



