INTRODUCTION. 
nothing more than a method of shorthand arranged to tell the 
initiated in quite a few words, what could otherwise only be 
conveyed to the profane in a great many. For instance, the 
fanciful description given above becomes perfectly simple and 
a good deal longer, when we are to imagine the plant to be “ stem- 
less with the undecaying leaves uncurling from the centre, set 
with bristly little warts, and cut into an uneven row of featherings, 
with the lobes pointed and scalloped round the edge, some having 
a backward, barbed, spear-headed effect, standing on footstalks 
down along which they continue in little wing-like flaps on either 
side.” Therefore it seemed to me, in wading through these sloughs 
of uncouth epithets, that in all cases open to doubt, they ought 
to be translated into legible English, for the benefit of such 
as do really desire to know their plants, if this can be achieved 
without unreasonable trouble, or painful pursuit of erudition ; 
for there is no reason why such details, if clearly and simply 
conveyed, should not only be helpful, but even readable and 
illuminating. 
At the same time, in the course of my researches, I came upon 
the startling fact that botanists are no less sensible than other 
people, and as a rule are not prone to manufacture gratuitous 
difficulties. In other words, that nearly all species are so clear 
and valid that, in nine cases out of ten, it is not necessary to dif- 
ferentiate a plant, for the benefit of the uninstructed enthusiast, 
by its complete and formal description; but that, almost invari- 
ably, every species has some one or two unalterable peculiarities, 
leaping to the eye, or easily to be noted ; and thus can immediately 
be recognised by any gardener to whom these peculiarities have 
been briefly and plainly pointed out. A very obvious instance is 
the punched-out hole at the base of the corolla-lobes of Campanula 
excisa : a more subtle one, the unvaryingly straight-sided calyx- 
segments of Gentiana vulgaris. This last, indeed, is more germane 
to my point: If cluttered up in a crowd of details, the gardener 
might be at a loss to diagnose this gentian: given this one, 
peculiar, and essential point, he confirms it at a glance, and is sure 
of his plant. Therefore throughout this book it has been my 
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