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OUTLINES OP BOTANY. 



FEOM ME. BENTHAM'S BRITISH AND COLONIAL FLORAS, 



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Chap. I. 



Descriptive Botany. 





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as to facilitate the comparison o 

 tney should be accompanied by i 



1. The 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 

 purpose of ulterior study or of intellectual exercise. • , .- 



2. With this view, a Flora consists of descriptions of all the wild or native 

 plants contained in the country in question, so drawn up and arranged that the 

 student may identify with the corresponding description any individual specimen 

 which he may gather. . . 



3- These descriptions should be clear, concise, accurate, and characfenshc, so as 

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

 one; they should be as nearly as possible arranged umler natural (184) divisions, so 



• ,n of each plant with those nearest allied to it ; ana 

 -"-J =««uiu oe accompanied by an artificial hey 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, as may lead him, with the least delay, to the mdividual 



description belonging to it. . .,^ a 



*■ For descriptions to be clear and readily intelligible, they should be expressed 

 as much as possible in ordinary well-established language. But for the purpose 

 of accuracy, it is necessary not only to give a more precise technical meaning to 

 many terms used more or less vaguely in common conversation, but also to intro- 

 duce purely technical names for such parts of plants or forms as are ot little im- 

 portance except to the botanist. In the present chapter it is proposed to detine 

 such technical or technically limited terms as are made use of in these J^Ioraa. 



6. At the same time mathematical accuracy must not be expected. -L^e torms 

 and appearances assumed by plants and their parts are infinite I^ames cannot 

 be mvented for aU; those even that have been proposed are too numerous^r 

 ordinary memories. Many are derived from supposed resemblances to well-Known 

 forms or objects. These resemblances are differently appreciated by di™t 

 persons, and the same term is not only differently applied by different botanists^ 

 but It frequently happens that the same writer is led on different occasions to £^e 

 somewhat different meanings to the same word. The botanist's endeavours hoidd 

 ^ ^wayg be, on the one hand, to make as near an approach to precision ^s circum- 

 stances wiU allow; and, on the other hand, to avoid that lf^^}'^'%''L^^^^^^^i 

 overloading with technical terms which tends rather to confusion .tb'in ^J^^Jf ''• 

 In this he will be more or less successful. The aptness of a botanical description 

 l^e the beauty of a work of imagination, will always vary with the style and 

 gemus of the author. 



%\. The Plant in General. 



The Plant, in its botanical sense, includes every \em§ which h^y^g 

 V«, from the loftiest tree which adorns our landscapes, *« t^e liumblest moss whi.h 



^8 on its stem, to the mould or fur-ns which attacks our provisions, or the 

 «™«n scum that floats on our ponds. 



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