6 TECHNICAL TERMS. 



Some of these parts often bear curious appendages, such as hairs, 

 thorns, prickles, and tendrils ; but there is never any other distinct 

 member, and the tallest tree is only a repetition of them over and 

 over again. Not that the whole five are always present, even in 

 perfect plants. The mistletoe has no true root, the cowslip no 

 true stem, the cactus no true leaves. But there are few plants in 

 which we may not find the greater portion, under some shape or 

 other, when we have learned what strange disguises they are prone to 

 assume. For if Nature seem playful in the myriad shapes of her rosy 

 sea-shells, and in the plumage of her innumerable bright birds, no 

 less gaily does she amuse herself here. 



To make everything clear and precise, it is necessary that we now 

 begin to use particular terms, — not "hard" ones, but merely unac- 

 customed, like the names of new acquaintances, which yet in a week 

 or two become as familiar as oldest friends'. Botanical terms are often 

 thought particularly difficult and numerous. It may be so ; but Botany 

 can be studied and enjoyed in spite of them. In the present volume 

 as few as possible will be introduced, and none without explanation, 

 either in the text, or in the shape of a drawing alongside, or in the 

 glossary at the end of the book. Technical terms, it must be remem- 

 bered, cannot be dispensed with, if we would master a subject. Every 

 branch of knowledge has a language of its own, and it is quite a 

 mistake to suppose that Botany can be made an exception. The 

 simple fact of its variety and beauty implies a vocabulary to match, 

 just as a large and populous country implies in its towns and cities a 

 map full of names of places. To attempt to dispense with technical 

 terms altogether, would be indeed as little complimentary to the 

 intelligence of the student, as hindering to his real progress. A few 

 select ones are invaluable. Those which will be found in the present 

 volume are so exact, so expressive, so easy to learn, and so indif- 

 ferently translateable into words of colloquial speech, that it would be 

 a far greater pity to leave them out than it will be troublesome for 

 the learner to make them his own. They have not to be learned all 

 at once, but one by one, as they are wanted and become interesting. 

 They are brought together here, in the Introduction, not so much 

 with a view to their being read and committed to memory in a lump, 

 like a lesson at school, as for convenience of illustration and future 

 reference. The etymologies or particular derivations are given in the 

 glossary, where the inexperienced in Latin and Greek will find every- 

 thing made plain. 



