DESCRIPTIVE NOMENCLATURE. 281 



aspect. I do not mean to talk of fat in seeds, 

 nor of flour in eggs, nor of milk in rocks. Pace 

 my prelatical friends, I mean to use the word 

 ' Alb ' for vegetable albumen ; and although I 

 cannot without pedantry avoid using sometimes 

 the word 'milky' of the white juices of plants, 

 I must beg the reader to remain unaffected in 

 his conviction that there is a vital difference 

 between liquids that coagulate into butter, or 

 congeal into India-rubber. Oil, when used simply, 

 will always mean a vegetable product : and when 

 I have occasion to speak of petroleum, tallow, or 

 blubber, I shall generally call these substances by 

 their right names. 



There are also a certain number of vegetable 

 materials more or less prepared, secreted, or 

 digested for us by animals, such as wax, honey, 

 silk, and cochineal. The properties of these 

 require more complex definitions, but they have 

 all very intelligible and well-established names. 

 'Tea' must be a general term for an extract 

 of any plant in boiling water: though when 

 standing alone the word will take its accepted 

 Chinese meaning: and essence, the general term 

 for the condensed dew of a vegetable vapour, 

 which is with grace and fitness called the 

 'being' of a plant, because its properties are 



