I 



INTRODUCTION. 



OUTLINES OF EOTANY, WITH SPECIAL EEFEEENCE TO 



LOCAL FLOEAS. 



Chap. L Definitions and Descriptive Botakt. 



. \. ® principal object of a Flora of a country, is to afford the means of delermln- 

 ing (z. e. ascertaining the name of) any plant growing in it, whether for the pni^^iose 

 of ulterior stndy or of intellectual exercise. 



2. With this view, a Flora consists of descriptions of all the wild or native plants 

 contained in the country in question, so drawn up and arranged that the student may 



identify with the corresponding description any individual specimen which he may 

 gather. 



♦V -*^^^®®® descriptions should be clear^ concise, accurate^ and cJiaracterisiic, seas 

 that each one should be readily adapted to the plant it relates to, and to no other one; 

 they should be as nearly as possible arranged under natural (184) divii^ions, so as to 

 tacihtate the comparison of each plant with those nearest allied to it ; and they should 

 be accompanied by an artificial Icey or index, by means of which the student may be 

 guided step by step iu the obseiwation of sucli peculiarities or characters in his plant, 

 as may lead him, with the least delay, to the individual description belonging to it. 



4. For descriptions to be clear and readily intelligible, they should be expressed as 

 niuch as possible in ordinary well-estabhshed language- But, for the purpose of ac- 

 curacy, it is necessary not only to give a more precise technical meaning to many 

 terms used more or less vaguely in conxmow conversation, but also to inti-oduce purely 

 technical names for such parts of plants or forms as are of little importance except 

 to the botanist. In the present chapter It is proposed to define such tecJinical or 

 ievhnlcally limited terms as are made iise of in these Floras. 



5. At the same time mathematical accuracy must not be expected. The forms and 

 appearances assumed by plants and their parts are infinite. Names cannot be invented 

 for all ; those even that have been proposed arc too numeron.9 for ordinary memories. 

 Many are derived from supposed resemblances to well-tuown forms or objects. These 

 l^emblancea are differently appreciated by dilferent persons, and the same term is not 

 only dillerently applied by two difForent bot^mists, but it frequently luippcns tliat-the 

 same writer is led on ditferent occasions to give somewhat different meanuigs to ^\c 

 »ame word. The botanist's endeavours should always be, on the one hand, to make 

 as near an approach to precision as circumstances will allow, and o\\ {^xc other hand to 

 avoid that prolixity of detail and overloading with technical terms which tends rather 

 to confusion than clearness. In tlas he willbe more or less succe^^sful. Tlie aptness 

 of a botanical description, like the beauty of a work of imagination, will always vary 

 "With the style and genius of the author. 



