Some Humbugs of Science 125 



common and simple, but more technicali- 

 ties than these are troublesome. And 

 botanies make a language all of their own. 

 Suppose, for instance, the unlearned, after 

 reading Gray's assertions about a dandelion, 

 turns to his glossary to see what an in- 

 volucre is. It proves to be a whorl of 

 bracts about a flower. What, then, is a 

 bract? He finds it to be the scale from 

 the axil of which a flower or its pedicel 

 proceeds. One has, therefore, to look up 

 axil and pedicel, and by that time he has 

 got away from involucres. Or, he wants 

 the definition of pappus, and finds it to be 

 the "modified calyx limb in compositae, 

 forming a crown of very various character 

 at the summit of the achene." So he must 

 hunt up compositae and achene. 



And another common plant : The va- 

 riety of ambrosia that botanists called by 

 the distantly respectful name of A. arte- 

 misifolia L., but by every-day people 

 known as ragweed, also called in a few 

 localities hogweed, bitterweed, and Roman 

 wormwood, is recognizable, in spite of the 

 botanical description, and is one of the 



