GLOSSOLOGY. 359 



SECTION II. GLOSSOLOGY OR TERMINOLOGY. 1 



735. This is nomenclature as applied to organs or parts and 

 their modifications. The actual botanical terminology owes its 

 excellence in the first place to Linnaeus, and then to DeCandollc. 

 The Theorie Elementaire of A. P. DeCandolle (the first edition 

 of which was published in 1813) is still classical authority, and 

 until recently has received few additions as regards terms need 

 fill in pluenogamous botany. 



736. The fundamental rule is that each organ or part shall 

 have a substantive name, and that modifications of organs shall 

 be designated by adjective terms. These names or terms should 

 be as precise as possible : each object ought to be known b}- only 

 one name, yet synonyms are unavoidable ; and no term ought 

 to be used with two different meanings. The word flower, for 

 instance, must not be used for a cluster of flowers, however it 

 may imitate the appearance of one, nor for the corolla or other 

 portions of a flower. Still, some terms have to be used in two or 

 more senses, to be determined only by the connection, or else as 

 having both a special and a more general meaning. Leaf (fo- 

 lium) is a notable instance. A bract, to go no farther, is a sort 

 of leaf; and the imperfect stamens of a Catalpa-flower and 

 Pentstemon are stamens, although likewise called staminodia : 

 these are liable to be called sometimes by one, sometimes by the 

 other name. But, however frequent such ambiguities may be in 

 morphological treatment, they are usually avoidable in descriptive 

 botany, in which terms are held to their more special or partic- 

 ular sense. Yet no rule can absolute!}' determine whether leaf 

 or bract, bract or bractlet, is the proper term in many cases. 

 Moreover, substantive names must also be applied to certain 

 mere modifications of the same organ. In the same family, a 

 simple carpel, differently modified in fruiting, is an akene in a 

 Ranunculus, a follicle in Aquilegia, a berry in Hydrastis and 

 Ac-tea ; while in another family an additional line of dehiscence 

 makes it a legume. Moreover, in this latter family it is called a 

 legume when it is not dehiscent at all, and even when it becomes 

 a drupe ! Arbitrary rules cannot absolutely fix technical any. 

 more than ordinary language. 



737. Experience and judgment must determine what modifi- 

 cations of organs should be regarded as a kind, and bear sub- 



1 Although the former is the better name, the latter is well established in 

 use as an English word, and perhaps it need not be objected to, inasmuch as 

 the Latin terminus comes from the Greek reppa, of the same meaning. 



