206 PROSERPINA. 



tive of some special quality or form, — leaving it 

 indeterminate if good or bad, until explained. It 

 will be manifestly impossible to limit either these 

 neuters or the feminines in ' is ' to Latin forms ; 

 but we shall always know by their termination 

 that they cannot be generic names, if we are strict 

 in forming these last on a given method. 



1 6. How little method there is in our present 

 formation of them, I am myself more and more 

 surprised as I consider. A child is shown a rose, 

 and told that he is to call every flower like that, 

 ' Rosaceous ' ; * he is next shown a lily, and told 

 that he is to call every flower like that, 

 ' Liliaceous ' ; — so far well ; but he is next shown 

 a daisy, and is not at all allowed to call every 

 flower Hke that, ' Daisaceous,' but he must call it, 

 like the fifth order of architecture, ' Composite ' ; 

 and being next shown a pink, he is not allowed 

 to call other pinks ' Pinkaceous,' but ' Nut-leaved ' ; 

 and being next shown a pease-blossom, he is not 

 allowed to call other pease-blossoms ' Peasaceous,' 

 but, in a brilliant burst of botanical imagination, 

 he is incited to call it by two names instead 

 of one, ' Butterfly-aceous ' from its flower, and 

 ' Pod-aceous ' from its seed ; — the inconsistency of 

 the terms thus enforced upon him being perfected 

 * Compare Chapter V., § 7. 



