OUTLINES OF AN INTRODUCTION 
TO 
SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 
[Taken, with slight alterations and additions, and by permission of the author, from 
Mr. Bentham’s admirable introduction to his ‘Handbook of the British Flora.”] 
I. DeFInITIONS. 
1. A Frora of any country consists of descriptions of all the wi/d or native plants 
of that country, so drawn up and arranged that the student may easily identify any 
plant with the corresponding description. 
2. The descriptions should be clear, concise, accurate, and characteristic, so that 
each may be applied to the plant it is intended for, and to no other ; they should be 
arranged as nearly as possible under natural divisions, so as to facilitate the com- 
parison of each plant with that most nearly allied to it ; and when numerous they 
should be accompanied by analytical tables, in which the prominent characters of the 
species are synoptically presented to the eye, and so contrasted and divided that the 
student, by carefully comparing the peculiarities or characters of his plant with the 
characters laid down in the tables, may be guided with the least delay to the 
description belonging thereto. 
3. Descriptions, to be clear and readily intelligible, should be expressed, if pos- 
sible, in ordi , well-established language ; but, for purposes of accuracy, it is 
necessary not only to give a more precise, technical meaning to many terms often 
used vaguely in conversation, but also to introduce purely technical words and 
phrases, to express parts of plants, or forms or conditions, which are of little use ex- 
cept to the botanist. Our object in these introductory outlines is to define and 
explain all technical or technically limited words made use of in the FLora. 
4. Mathematical accuracy, however, must not be expected. The forms assumed 
by plants and by their parts are all but infinite. Names cannot be invented for all, 
nor is strict accuracy in application always attainable. The parts to be described 
are never precisely regular, nor is the same part precisely of the same form in two 
individuals of the same species: the botanist’s definitions partake in this uncertainty, 
and his aim should be, by a few forcible words, to strike out a character applicable 
to average individuals ud thn specase to be described. — ee : 
5. Under the common term Plant botanists include every being that has vegetable 
4 _ life; from the lofty forest tree to the moss upon its stem, the mouldiness on out 
decaying provisions, or the green scum that floats on stagnant water. 
6. Eyery portion of a plant which has a distinct office or function to perform in 
the operations of vegetable life is called an 
7. The organs of plants are of two kinds, the elementary and the compound. 
8. Elementary organs are those ultimate parts or tissues of which the body of a 
compound vegetable consists, viz., cellular-tissue, woody-tissue, and vascular-tissue. 
9. Compound organs are formed by various combinations of the elementary, and 
_ Sppear under the form of Root, Stem, Leaves, Flowers, Fruit. Of these the three __ : 
_ first, whose function is to assist in the growth of the plant, are termed Organs of ae 
‘vegetation ; and the two last, whose office is the formation of seed, are the Organs of ae 
