COMPOUND LEAVES. 147 



with themselves, in the apphcation of terms ; but as 

 Linnaeus, the father of accurate botanical phraseology, 

 very frequently misapplies his own terms, it is perhaps 

 scarcely to be avoided. I have observed botanists most 

 critical in theory, to be altogether deficient in that char- 

 acteristic phraseology, that power of defining, which 

 bears the stamp of true genius, and which renders the 

 works of Linnaeus so luminous in despite of incidental 

 errors. Perhaps no mind, though ever so intent on the 

 subject, can retain all the possible terms of description 

 and their various combinations, for ready use at any giv- 

 en moment. There are few natural objects to vv'hich a varie- 

 ty of terms are not equally applicable in description, so 

 that no two writers would exactly agree in their use. 

 Neither is Nature herself so constant as not perpetually to 

 elude our most accurate research. Happy is that natur- 

 alist who can seize at a glance what is most charact^^^ris- 

 tic and permanent, and define all that is essential, with- 

 out trusting to fallacious, though ever so specious, dis- 

 tinctions ! 



9. Folia composita^ compound leaves, consist of two or 

 any greater number oifoliohy leaflets, connected by a 

 common footstalk. 



Folium articulatum^f. 104, a jointed leaf, is when one 

 leaflet, or pair of leaflets, grows out of the summit of 

 another, Vv^ith a sort of joint, as in Fagara tragodes^ 

 Jacq. Amer. t. 14. 



Tiigitatum y f. 22, digitate or fingered, when several 

 leaflets proceed from the summit of a common foot» ^ 



