EXERCISES IN PRACTICAL BOTANY. 



The following descriptions of Genera and Specie's have been 

 selected from ' ; Familiar Lectures on Botany," for the purpose 

 of furnishing to the Beginner a series of Practical Exercises. 

 Care has been taken to introduce such plants as Teachers can 

 easily procure from the gardens and fields for their classes and 

 which are the most simple for analysis. 



DIRECTIONS FOR PRONOUNCING THE NAMES OF PJ.A.NT9. 



BOTANICAL names of plants are formed according to the an- 

 alogies of the ancient languages, chiefly the Latin. Some of the 

 most common terminations of names of Genera and Species, 

 are a, urn, us, and is ; for exarftple, the generic names, GERAR- 

 DIA, TKIFOLHTM, PRUNUS, arid IRIS ; and the specific names vir- 

 ginica. candidum, blandus, and officinalis. A great propor- 

 tion of Botanical names terminate in a, in which case it has 

 the sound of a in father, as Rosa, Viola, &c. 



The letter e at the end of a word is always to be sounded j 

 for example, Anemone, pronounced aneni'-o-ne. 



The e is long before s when it ends a word, as Bicor' ties 

 pronounced Bicornees. 



In words that end in ides, the i is long, as in Hesper' ides. 



The vowels ae and oe, are often used as diphthongs, and then 

 have the sound of e, as Hepaticce, pronounced Hepat'-i-ce, and 

 Di-oKCia, pronounced Di-e-cia. 



C and g*, as in English, are soft before e, ?', and y, and hard 

 before a, o, and u. The soft sound of c, is like s, the hard sound 

 like k. The soft sound of g-, is like j, the hard sound like g, in 

 the word gave ; thus Algae is pronounced Alje. Musci is pro- 

 nounced Mussi. 



The letters ch, are hard like k, as in Orchis; pronounced 

 Or-kis. 



Explanation of Lexers and Characters. 



The letter o, when affixed to the specific description, stands 

 for the Latin omnibus locis, in all places, meaning that the 

 plant is common ; r denotes that the colour of the flower is red. 

 p. purple y. yellow w. white b. blue g. green Ap. denotes 

 that the flower blossoms in April M. May J. June Ju. July 

 Au. August S. September Oc. October Var. stands foi 

 Variety. 



