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THE JOURNAL 
OF 
THE LINNEAN SOCIETY. 
(BOTANY. 
Quantitative Description of Ten British Species of the Genus Mniwn. By 
Professor Junius MacLEop, University of Ghent. (Communicated by 
Prof. F. E. Weiss, D.Se., F.L.S.) 
(9 Text-figures.) 
[Read 1st June, 1916.] 
INTRODUCTION. 
WHEN we give a specific description of an animal or a plant, we use terms, 
and an extensive terminology has been created for the description of the 
characters of living beings. : 
The leaves of a certain species A are, for instance, described as oblong, 
elongate, with numerous marginal teeth and a short. petiole. "Those of species 
B are oval, short, with distant marginal teeth and a longer petiole. So long as 
we compare the two descriptions in a book the difference between A and B 
is distinct, but when we look at the objects we begin to hesitate. The 
words are vague: what is, for instance, the difference between a short and a 
longer petiole ? Moreover, we are very often puzzled by the variation of the 
characters. We may find in A leaves which are really oblong and other 
leaves which are rather oval, and in B we may find some leaves which are 
oblong or oboval and petioles of very different lengths. 
We are told, for instance, that the pronotum of a certain species of 
LINN. JOURN.—BOTANY, VOL. XLIV. B 
