TERMINOLOGY AND NOMENCLATURE. 281 



Decandolle, ' appears to have been the first who 

 really perceived the utility of fixing the sense of terms 

 in such a way as always to employ the same word in 

 the same sense, and always to express the same idea 

 by the same word; but it was Linnseus who really 

 created and fixed this botanical language, and this is 

 his fairest claim to glory, for by this fixation of lan- 

 guage he has shed clearness and precision over all parts 

 of the science.' 



"It is not necessary here to give any detailed 

 account of the terms of botany. The fundamental 

 ones have been gradually introduced, as the parts of 

 plants were more carefully and minutely examined. 

 Thus the flower was necessarily distinguished into 

 the calyx, the corolla, the stamens, and the pistils; 

 the sections of the corolla were termed petals by 

 Columna; those of the calyx were called sepals by 

 Necker. Sometimes terms of greater generality were 

 devised; as perianth to include the calyx and corolla, 

 whether one or both of these were present ; pericarp, 

 for the part inclosing the grain, of whatever kind it 

 be, fruit, nut, pod, &c. And it may easily be imagined 

 that descriptive terms may, by definition and combi- 

 nation, become very numerous and distinct. Thus 

 leaves may be called pinnatifid, pinnatipartite, pin- 

 natisect, pinnatilobate, palmatifid, palmatipartite, &c., 

 and each of these words designates different combi- 

 nations of the modes and extent of the divisions of 

 the leaf with the divisions of its outline. In some 

 cases, arbitrary numerical relations are introduced 

 into the definition: thus, a leaf is called Ulobate, 

 when it is divided into two parts by a notch; but if 

 the notch go to the middle of its length, it is bifid ; 

 if it go near the base of the leaf, it is bipartite; if to 

 the base, it is bisect. Thus, too, a pod of a crucife- 



