REFORM OF LINNAEUS. 343 



being learnt as any other language is learnt; that is, 

 the reader must connect the terms immediately with 

 his own sensations and notions, and not mediately, 

 through a verbal explanation ; he must not have to 

 guess their meaning, or to discover it by a separate 

 act of interpretation into more familiar language as 

 often as they occur. The language of botany must 

 be the botanist's most familiar tongue. When the 

 student has thus learnt to think in botanical lan- 

 guage, it is no idle distinction to tell him that a 

 bunch of grapes is not a duster ; that is, a thyrsus 

 not a raceme. And the terminology of botany is 

 then felt to be a useful implement, not an oppres- 

 sive burden. It is only the schoolboy that complains 

 of the irksomeness of his grammar and vocabulary. 

 The accomplished student possesses them without 

 effort or inconvenience. 



As to the other question, whether the construc- 

 tion of such a botanical grammar and vocabulary 

 implies an extensive and accurate acquaintance 

 with the facts of nature, no one can doubt who is 

 familiar with any descriptive science. It is true, 

 that a person might construct an arbitrary scheme 

 of distinctions and appellations, with no attention 

 to natural objects; and this is what shallow and 

 self-confident persons often set about doing, in some 

 branch of knowledge with which they are imper- 

 fectly acquainted. But the slightest attempt to use 

 such a phraseology leads to confusion; and any 

 continued use of it leads to its demolition. Like a 



