NAMES OF PLANTS. 95 



there is no sucli letter ; but in passing through the Latin 

 the Greek k (kappa) is alwaj's changed into c : kephalos, 

 Greek, becomes cephalus, Latin. There is difference of 

 opinion whether in such words c should be pronounced soft, 

 as sephaluSy or hard, as kephalus ; but I think the s sound is 

 most usual. In Greek words the k (c) was always hard. I 

 have always, in the following pages, changed the Greek k 

 into c. The difficulties of the letter g are very similar. 

 Those Greek words that come to us through the Latin, and 

 have been long in use with us, generally follow English 

 usage, and are pronounced soft, though not always: for 

 instance, both gymnastic and jymnastic may be heard. In 

 words direct from the Greek, especially modern scientific 

 terms, as parthenogenesis, the g is prounounced hard. 



The following useful hints are taken from Withering's 

 ' Systematic Arrangement of British Plants :'* — 



" 1. The English reader is desired to observe that the 

 accent, or force of the voice, is be thrown on that syllable or 

 letter which precedes the mark. Thus, in Arbutus, the Ar 

 is to be the accented or strongly -sounded syllable, and not 

 the hu, as is commonly, though erroneously, the case ; and 

 in Veroni'ca the ni is to be the accented syllable, and not 

 the TO, which is also a common error. 



"2. That the letter e at the end of a name is always to 

 be sounded: thus the word Elat'ine is to be pronounced 

 E-laf-ti-ne, with four syllables, and not E-la-tine. 



*' 3. That in words ending in ides the i is always to be 

 pronounced long. 



" 4. That ch is to be pronounced hard, like the letter k. 



" 5. That in words beginning with sc^ and sci, the c is to 

 be i^ronounced soft; though it is allowed that some few 

 words, derived from the Greek, are exceptions to this rule. 



" 6. That in such words as have sch, the c is to be 



" Foiu'tli edition, in four volumes, 1801. 



