28 



FLORA IXDICA. 



the most important groups of phenomena requiring elucida- 

 tion and careful description are, — 1 . The changes that accom- 

 pany the growth of individual organs from the seedling state 

 to the decaying plant. 2. Variations in the same organs, as 

 displayed in different parts of the same individual. 3. Varia- 

 tions in the development and distribution of the sexual or- 

 gans in plants with unisexual flowers, and in bisexual plants. 

 It is to our neglect, and often to our ignorance, of the 



form that so many organs undergo during the 



& 



individual, or of the different 



form under which they appear in different parts of the same 

 individual, that we owe so many of the spurious species 

 which crowd the pages of our systematic works ; and it is 

 to the want of that early training' to habits of observation in 

 the field, which we have so strenuously advocated, that is to 

 be attributed the rarity of that power of discrimination be- 

 tween essential and non-essential characters, which alone can 

 make an observer a sound systematist. We therefore ear- 

 nestly recommend to the Indian botanist the detailed study 



ad their organs*, with the view of determin- 



limits 



size especi 



observer will fi nd immense variation ; for, unlike the animal 

 creation, proportional dimensions are of small moment in the 

 vegetable kingdom. This fact, so familiar to the botanic of 

 experience, is always a puzzle to the zoologist, who fancies be 

 l-rceives a vagueness and want of exactness in all botanical 

 writings (except in those of the too numerous class that make 

 a parade of measuring to lines organs that vary by inches), 

 "trusts unf avourably with descriptive .oology. ^ 

 metry agam is only a relative term amongst plants, for even 



2 1 1 form *Z t *** *» ™™ ^ ^ <*» ** 



k tc of T' aUd "**»•> whikt the various «** 



|h tals, etc of an mdividual flower, never so exactlv com 

 spond, as the relativ, memW, t exacuv «" 



members of an animal do ; and there & 



» In Wight «nd Anion's ' Pro* Iron » • >It 



upon, w»d a mununir bmi t<» K.,. °" lU8 > P- xxi., t) 9 poj,,, iS especially d** 



