OUTLINES OF AN INTEODUCTION 



TO 



SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 



I. Definitions. 



\_Taken., with slight alterations and additions, and by permission of the 

 author, from Mr. BenthatvH s admirable introductiorv to his ' Handbook of 

 the British Flora.''\ 



1. A Flora of any country consists of descriptions of all the wild or 

 native plants of that country, so drawn up and arranged that the student 

 may easily identify any plant with the corresponding description. 



2. The descriptions should be clear, concise, accurate, and characteristic, so 

 that each may be applied to the plant it is intended for, and to no other ; 

 they should be arranged as nearly as possible under natural divisions, so 

 as to facilitate the comparison of each plant with that most nearly allied 

 to it ; and when numerous they should be accomj)anied by analytical tables, 

 in which the prominent characters of the species are sj-noptically presented 

 to the eye, and so contrasted and divided that the student, by carefully 

 comparing the peculiarities or characters of his plant with the characters 

 laid down in the tables, may be guided with the least delay to the 

 description belonging thereto. 



3. Descriptions, to be clear and readily intelligible, should be expressed, 

 if possible, in ordinary, well-established language ; but, for purposes of 

 accuracy, it is necessary not only to give a more precise, technical meaning 

 to many terms often used vaguely in conversation, but also to introduce 

 purely technical words and phrases, to express paris of plants, or forms or 

 conditions, which are of little use except to the botanist. Our object in 

 these introductory outlines is to define and explain all technical or techni- 

 cally limited words made use of in the Flora. 



4. Mathematical accuracy, however, must not be expected. The forma 

 assumed by plants and by their parts are all but infinite. Names 

 cannot be invented for all, nor is strict accuracy in application always 

 attainable. The parts to be described are never precisely regular, nor is 

 the same part precisely of the same form in two indi\-iduals of the same 

 species : the botanist's definitions partake in this uncertainty, and his aim 

 should be, by a few forcible words, to strike out a character applicable to 

 average indi\aduals of the species to be described. 



b 



