INTRODUCTION. S 



upon which species, genera, &c., rest; CLASSIFICATION or the 

 SYSTEM OF PLANTS, the actual arrangement of known plants in 

 systematic order according to their relationships ; PHYTOGRAPHY, 

 the rules and methods of describing plants ; and NOMENCLATURE, 

 the methods and rules adopted for the formation of botanical 

 names. GLOSSOLOGY or TERMINOLOGY 1 is a necessaiy part of 

 Phytography or Descriptive Botany, and hardly less so of 

 Structural Botany: it relates to the application of distinctive 

 terms or names to the several organs or parts of plants, and to 

 their numberless modifications of form, &c. This requires a 

 copious vocabulary of well-defined technical terms, b}' the use of 

 which the botanist is able to describe the objects of his study 

 with a precision and brevity not otherwise attainable. It will 

 be convenient to exemplify the principal terms along with the 

 modifications of conformation which they designate ; and also, 

 for greater fulness and facility of reference, to append to this 

 volume an alphabetical summary of them, or Vocabulary of 

 Botanical Term s . 2 



7. The present volume is mainly devoted to Morphological 

 Botany ; that is, to Structural Botany on the basis of mor- 

 phology. This department cannot be properly dealt with apart 

 from considerable reference to intimate structure, development, 

 and function, the subject-matter of vegetable histology and 

 physiology. But these will here be treated only in the most 

 general or incidental and elementary way, and only so far as 

 is necessary to the understanding of the morphology of the 

 stem, leaves, &c. The whole discussion of the histology and 

 physiology of plants is relegated to a following volume and to 

 another hand. 



8. The most comprehensive and important division of the 

 vegetable kingdom is into plants of the higher and of the lower 

 series or grade, i.e. into PH^NOGAMOUS (or PHANEROGAMOUS) or 

 FLOWERING, and CRYPTOGAMOUS or FLOWERLESS PLANTS. The 

 first are all manifestly of one type, and therefore have a consist- 

 ent and simple morphology. The second differ among them- 

 selves almost as widely as they do from the higher series ; and 



1 GLOSSOLOGY is the better word, but TERMINOLOGY, although a hybrid 

 of Latin and Greek, is in common use. 



2 What is called GEOGRAPHICAL BOTANY is the study of plants in respect 

 to their natural distribution at the present time over the earth's surface, and 

 the causes of it. FOSSIL BOTANY (Vegetable Palaeontology) relates to the 

 plants of former ages, as more or less made known in their fossil remains. 

 MEDICAL BOTANY, AGRICULTURAL BOTANY, and the like, are applications 

 of Botany to medicine, agriculture, &c. 



