INTRODUCTION. 6 



departments mentioned in the last article admits of 

 subdivision ; and the several subordinate departments 

 thus formed become a register of special observations. 

 Thus, the descriptive department will include a "Glosso- 

 logy," or mere register of technical terms composing a 

 conventional language, by which the description of 

 plants is facilitated, and a comparison of their forms 

 and peculiarities rendered clear and precise, without 

 any periphrasis or unnecessary prolixity. It will also 

 include an " Organography," containing a particular 

 account of the several parts or organs of which plants 

 are composed. A third subordinate department is 

 styled " Phytography," in which a full description of 

 plants themselves is given : and lastly, we have the 

 "Taxonomy" of this science, in which plants are 

 classified in a methodical manner, according to some 

 one or other of those various methods or systems, 

 which serve to facilitate our knowledge of the forms 

 and relations of the numerous species already discovered. 

 We do not, however, propose to treat our subject with 

 so much technicality. In descriptive botany we shall 

 chiefly restrict ourselves to the more general details of 

 Organography, and include in this department what- 

 ever we may find it necessary to say on Glossology. 

 The reader may then consult the general index at the 

 end of the volume, whenever he meets with a word 

 which requires explanation, and he will be referred to 

 the page and article in which such explanation is 

 given. Phytography is entirely subordinate to Taxo- 

 nomy, or Systematic Botany, which forms no part 

 of our scheme, beyond what is necessary to give the 

 reader some general notions of the manner in which 

 plants are described and classified in the most cele- 

 brated systems of systematic authors. We shall enter 

 somewhat more fully into the details of Physiological 

 Botany, as this subject possesses a more general inter, 

 est, owing to the numerous and striking phenomena, 

 of practical and economical importance, which it ena 

 bles us to explain. 



B 2 



