THE MUSEUM. 



263 



unnoticed, even b}- crude and unob- 

 serving people. 



The forms of plant growth that af- 

 fect the physiognomy of the earth, by 

 impressing a peculiar aspect upon the 

 landscape, are not many and they a"re 

 peculiarly striking; so as, in some 

 measure to dominate and rule out of 

 the mind other forms less impressive. 

 Humboldt has included them in si.xteen 

 forms. Among the most striking of 

 these, is the palm form, with their 

 lofty, slender ringed and sometimes 

 prickly stems, terminating in shining, 

 fan-like or pinnated foliage, inhabit- 

 ing the tropics; the cactus form, with 

 their leafless, leathery, flattened spher- 

 ical or polygonal stems, flourishing in 

 the sandy waste only of the New 

 World; the casurina form, including 

 the pines and cypresses, with their 

 leafless or economized needle-like 

 leaves, most at home in northern lati- 

 tudes; the graminea; form, giving an 

 expression of cheerful and airy grace 

 and lightness by their long, narrow, 

 alternate leaves and tall, smooth, 

 bending stem and social habits, partial 

 to the north temperate zone, but to a 

 great extent the companion and sup- 

 port of man everywhere; the willow 

 form, with its sameness of foliage, in 

 all parts and the most varied climates 

 and ages of the world, from the crete- 

 ceous or chalk age to the present time. 



A classification of all plants into 

 herbs, shrubs and trees was the only 

 one in vogue originally, and in fact 

 has never been entirely given up in 

 our common talk and literature. I^it 

 it was not until science begun to de- 

 velop, through a desire to know more 

 of nature; to understand better the si- 

 lent, secret working that is constantly 

 going on everywhere, to produce and 



vary the world of life about us; and to 

 grapple those unseen laws that regulate 

 and control by a mysterious power 

 every part of nature, that a strict 

 classification in the sciences began. 



When such a desire seized mens' 

 hearts there was not wanting means to 

 aid its accomplishment. And chief 

 among these was the binomial nomen- 

 clature or system of naming first ad- 

 vanced by Linnaeus, by which all ani- 

 mals and plants receive a double 

 name; the first intending to tell the 

 genus, and the last the specie of the 

 object named; thus corresponding with 

 the names of persons, who have a fam- 

 ily or surname and a christian or given 

 name, only with the order reversed, 

 as we often see it in alphabetical lists 

 of names: the family name being the 

 generic, and the christian name the 

 specific equivalent in science. 



This system has been a vast advant- 

 age and its application has been ex- 

 tended not only to recent but also to 

 fossil animals and plants as well. And 

 even in the case of the Mollusca it is 

 made to apply in naming the shell in 

 common with its animal. Thus a wide 

 range of the natural sciences — Zool- 

 ogy, Botany, Palaeontology, Conchol- 

 ogy and lately Chemistry, have been 

 placed on a uniform basis of systemat- 

 ic naming. It has never been extend- 

 ed to Mineralogy but it has every 

 right, and in the interests of science 

 ought to be extended to it and Petro- 

 logy also. 



The classical terms used in naming 

 ought to express the peculiar charac- 

 teristic of the species and genus in 

 hand and it may sometimes do this by 

 a classical name indicative of its color 

 or form or habit — if these are entirely 

 characteristic — or by giving it the 



