PHYTOGRAPHY. 345 



CHAPTER X. 



PHYTOGRAPHY. 



SECTION I. NOMENCLATURE. 



701. PHYTOGRAPHY is the department of botany which relates to 

 the description of plants. This includes names and terms, also 

 figures and signs, as well as characters and detailed descriptions. 

 It comprises two sorts of names, one used to designate organs 

 or modifications of organs, the other to distinguish plants or 

 groups of plants. The former is Glossology or (to use the more 

 common but less proper word) Terminology, The latter is prop- 

 erly Nomenclature. 



702. Names of Plants were at first only generic names. The 

 language of botan}* being Latin, and the plants which the old 

 herbalists knew being mostly European, their scientific names 

 were mainty adopted from the ancient Romans or, through Latin 

 literature, from the Greeks. Ex. Quercus, Prunus, Rosa, Rubus, 

 Trifolium ; and of Latinized Greek names, Agrostis, Aristolochia, 

 Colchicum, Melilotus. To the classical names others were 

 added from time to time ; as, from the Latin, Bidens, ConvaUaria, 

 Dentaria ; from the Greek, Anacardium, Glycyrrhiza, Loranthus, 

 &c. Some barbarous or outlandish names were early adopted, 

 such as Alhagi from the Arabs, and Adhatoda and Nelumbo from 

 India. These are mostly such as were or could be conformed to 

 Latin ; as Datura and Ribes from the Arabic, and later Thcea and 

 Coff&a. Of American aboriginal names, ffura, Guaiacum, and 

 Yucca are examples. Some ancient names of plants commem- 

 orated distinguished men. Ex. Asclepias, Euphorbia, Lysimachia, 

 Pceonia. Tournefort and his contemporaries resumed this 

 practice, and named plants in memory or in honor of distin- 

 guished botanists. Ex. Begonia, Bignonia, Ccesalpinia, Fuchsia, 

 Gerardia, Lobelia, Lonicera, Magnolia. 



703. When among plants of the same name or kind different 

 species were known, these were distinguished by annexed epi- 

 thets. For example, among the Pines there were : Pinus syl- 

 vestris, vulgaris ; Pinus sylvestris, montana alter a ; Pinus sylvestris, 

 montana tertia / Pinus sylvestris maritima, conis firmiter ramis 

 adhcerentibus ; Pinus maritima minor ; Pinus maritima altera, &c. 



