INTRODUCTION. 



OUTLINES OF BOTANY, WITH SPECIAL REEERENCE TO 

 LOCAL FLORAS. 



Chap. I. Definitions and Desceiptive Botany. 



1. The principal object of a Flora of a country, is to afford the means of deter- 

 mining {i. e. ascertaining the name of) any plant growing in it, whether for the pur- 

 pose of ulterior study or of intellectual exercise. 



2. With this view, a Flora consists of descriptions of all the wild or native plants 

 contained in the coimtry in question, so drawn up and arranged that the student may 

 identify with the corresponding description any individual specimen which he may 

 gather. 



3. These descriptions should be clear, concise, accurate, and characteristic, so as 

 that each one should be readily adapted to the plant it relates to, and to no other one ; 

 they shoidd be as nearly as possible arranged laider natural (184) divisions, so as to 

 facilitate the comparison of each plant wdth those nearest allied to it ; and they shoidd 

 be accompanied by an artificial key or index, by means of which the student may be 

 guided step by step in the observation of such pecuHarities or characters in his plant, 

 as may lead him, with the least delay, to the individual description belonging to it. 



4. For descriptions to be clear and readily intelligible, they shoidd be expressed as 

 much as possible in ordinary well-established language. But, for the purpose of ac- 

 curacy, it is necessary not only to give a more precise technical mea]iing to many 

 terms used more or less vaguely in common conversation, but also to introduce purely 

 technical names for sucli parts of plants or forms as are of little importance except 

 to the botanist. In the present chapter it is proposed to define such technical or 

 technically limited terms as are made use of in these Floras. 



5. At the same time mathematical accuracy must not be expected. The forms and 

 appeai'ances assmned by plants and their parts are infinite. Names cannot be invented 

 for all ; those even that have been proposed are too numerous for ordinary memories. 

 Many are derived from supposed resemblances to w^ell-known forms or objects. These 

 resemblances are difierently appreciated by different persons, and the same term is not 

 only differently ajDphed by two different botanists, but it frequently happens that the 

 same writer is led on different occasions to give somewliat different meanings to the 

 same word. The botanist's endeavours should always be, on the one hand, to make 

 as near an approach to precision as circumstances will allow, and on the other hand to 

 avoid that proHxity of detail and overloading with technical terms which tends rather 

 to confusion than clearness. In this he will be more or less successful. The aptness 

 of a botanical description, Uke the beauty of a work of imagination, will always vary 

 with the style and genius of the author. 



