EXERCISES IN PRACTICAL BOTANY. 



The following descriptions of Genera and Species have 

 selected from " Familiar Lectures on Botany/' for tne purpose 

 of furnishing to the Beginner a series of Practical Exercises. 

 Care has been taken to introduce such plants as Teachers can 

 easily procure from the gardens and fields for their classes and 

 which are the most simple for analyses. 



DIRECTIONS FOR PRONOUNCING THE NAMES OP PLANTS. 



BOTANICAL names of plants are formed according to the an- 

 alogies of the ancient languages, chiefly the Latin. Some of the 

 most common terminations of names of Genera and Species 

 are a, um, us, and is ; for example, the generic names, GERAR- 

 DIA, TRIFOLITJM, PRUNUS, arid IRIS ; and the specific names vir- 

 ginica. candidum, blandus, and qfficin'alis. A great propor- 

 tion 01 Botanical names terminate in a, in which case it has 

 the sound of a in father, as Rosa, Viola, &c. 



The letter e at the end of a word is always to be sounded 

 for example, Anemone, pronounced anem'-o-ne. 



The e is long before s when it ends a word, as Bicor" nr.s 

 oronounced Bicornees. 



In words that end in ides, the i. is long, as in Ilesper' idex. 



The vowels ae and oe, are often used as diphthongs, and then 

 have the sound of e, as Hepaticce, pronounced Hepat'-i-ce, and 

 /)i-cp.cia, pronounced Di-e-cia. 



Cand g, as in English, are soft before e, ?*, and t/, and hard 

 before a, o, and u. The soft sound of c, is like 5, the hard sound 

 like k. The soft sound of g, is like j, the hard sound like g, in 

 the word gave ; thus Algae is pronounced Alje. Musci is pro- 

 nounced MussL 



The letters ch, are hard like k, as in Orchis ; pronounced 

 Or-kis. 



Explanation of Letters and Characters. 



The letter o, when affixed to the specific description, stands 

 for the Latin omnibus locis, in all places, meaning that the 

 plant is common ; r denotes that the colour of the tiower is red. 

 p. purple y. yellow w. white b. blue g. green Ap. denotes 

 that the flower blossoms in April M. May J. June Ju. July 

 Au. August S. Septembep~-Oc. October Var. stands for 

 I'ariety. 



