GENERAL PIUNCIFLES. 7 



It is not to be expected that the Latin Nomenclature of 

 Botanists should always display the purity of the golden, or 

 even of the silver age, of Roman literature : because it is im- 

 possible to select such expressions only as are found in the 

 Roman writers of that period, as the designations of objects 

 which were altogether unknown to those writers ; yet it is to 

 be expected, that he who writes Latin, should neither mis- 

 take nor disregard the laws of grammar and of composition, 

 nor the spirit of the language in which he expresses himself. 



9. 



Where the Latin language cannot be employed, where the 

 necessary compositions are cither foreign or adverse to the 

 spirit of that language, we betake ourselves to the riclier and 

 more pliant dialect of the Greeks. Only here also, the terms 

 must be chosen according to the laws of the grammar and 

 composition of that language. \'\''e must be on our guard 

 not to employ what have been called hybrid expressions, or 

 words compounded from both the learned languages, (as, lor 

 example, muscologia^ algologia^ ovdidea) ; or to exchange 

 customary and intelligible Latin terms for unusual, often 

 strange and falsely compounded Greek expressions. 



10. 



The first principle of Botanical Nomenclature is, That each 

 distinct form, and every different organ, be designated by a 

 peculiar expression. By follownig out this principle, all 

 wavering of ideas, all uncertainty of knowledge, is avoided. 

 In conformity with this law, we call the leaves of the branches 

 <and ^iQm, folia ; the leafy appendages of the leaves, st'qnda ; 

 the leaves in the neighbourhood of the flower, hracka ; |he 

 parts of the cover of the flower and of the calyx, scpala ,• 

 and, lastly, the divisions of the corolla, pctala. In the same 

 manner must the elliptical form of the leaves, the varied 

 rounding or tapering of their summits, be designated by pe- 

 culiar expressions. 



We may easily, however, go too far in this procest=, by 

 assigning difierent terms to every small additional variety of 



