OUTLINES OF AN INTRODUCTION 
TO 
SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 
I. DEFINITIONS. 
[ZLaken, with slight alterations and additions, and by permission of the 
author, from Mr. Bentham’s admirable introduction to his ‘ Handbook of 
. the British Flora. | 
1, A Fuora of any country consists of descriptions of all the wild or 
native plants of that country, so drawn up and arranged that the student 
may easily identify any plant with the corresponding description. 
2. The descriptions should be elear, concise, accurate, and characteristic, so 
that each may be applied to the plant it is intended for, and to no other; 
they should be arranged as nearly as possible under natural divisions, so 
as to facilitate the comparison of each plant with that most nearly allied 
to it ; and when numerous they should be accompanied by analytical tables, 
in which the prominent characters of the species are synoptically presented 
to the eye, and so contrasted and divided that the student, by carefully 
comparing the peculiarities or characters of his plant with the characters 
laid down in the tables, may be guided with the least delay to the 
description belonging thereto. 
3. Descriptions, to be clear and readily intelligible, should be expressed, 
if possible, in ordinary, well-established language; but, for purposes of 
accuracy, it is necessary not only to give a more precise, technical meaning 
to many terms often used vaguely in conversation, but also to introduce 
purely technical words and phrases, to express parts of plants, or forms or 
conditions, which are of little use except to the botanist. Our object in 
these introductory outlines is to define and explain all technical or techni- 
cally limited words made use of in the Fiora. 
4. Mathematical accuracy, however, must not be expected. The forms 
assumed by plants and by their parts are all but infinite. Names 
cannot be invented for all, nor is strict accuracy in application always 
attainable. The parts to be described are never precisely regular, nor is 
the same part precisely of the same form in two individuals of the same 
species: the botanist’s definitions partake in this uncertainty, and his aim 
should be, by a few forcible words, to strike out a character applicable to 
average individuals of the species to be described. 
b 
