CHARACTERS. 368 



ters, and so on. Where brevity is aimed at, such external and 

 obvious characters, followed by a few diagnostic marks, may 

 practically take the place of a full enumeration of particulars, 

 man}' of which may be common to other orders, though not in 

 the same combination. Generic characters alwa3*s commence 

 with the calyx or most external of the floral organs and proceed 

 to the ovary, thence to the fruit and seed, and end with subsi- 

 diaiy (but often no less diagnostic) particulars furnished by the 

 vegetation and mode of growth. 



749. Detailed descriptions of species, as distinguished from 

 technical characters, commence with the root, and proceed in 

 order to the stem, leaves and their parts or appendages, inflor- 

 escence, bracts, flowers, calyx, corolla, stamens, with filament, 

 anther, and pollen, the disk, if any, gyncecium and its parts, 

 ovules ; then the fruit, seed, albumen, if any, embrj-o and its 

 parts. But descriptions of this sort in most works and in ordi- 

 naiy cases are partial and subsidiary, comprising only certain 

 details supplemental'}* to or in amplification of the character of 

 the species or genus. In condensed works, such description is 

 wholly omitted, or is reduced to a few specifications which do not 

 readily find their way into the character. 



750. Specific characters usually follow the same order of 

 enumeration, from root to seed, so far as the several organs arc 

 mentioned ; and in Latin the phrases are expressed in the abla- 

 tive case. But these particulars are often very conveniently 

 prefaced by statements applying to the whole plant rather than 

 to any one organ ; and these are given in the nominative, and 

 agree with the name in gender. 1 



751. Linnaeus required that neither the essential character of 

 a genus, nor a specific character (his nomen specificum), should 

 exceed twelve words. Latin characters take fewer words than 

 English. But this arbitra^ rule is wholly out of date. Yet 

 such characters should be brief and diagnostic : otherwise, their 

 advantage is lost, and the distinction between them and descrip- 

 tions disappears. In monographs and floras, the desirable 

 brevity, or such as the case "admits, is secured by proper group- 

 ing under a subordination of sections, subsections, and other 

 subdivisions. 2 



1 Ex. " NEPETA CATARIA : erecta, elata, cano-pubescens ; foliis petio- 

 Jatis," etc. In English, these adjectives without any substantive expressed 

 will be seen to belong, as here, to " plant " or " herb " understood. 



2 In the Synoptical Flora of North America, such a system of successive 

 divisions is thoroughly carried out. And, if the specific characters are by no 

 means short, it is mostly because nearly all separate descriptive matter is 



