TERMINOLOGY AND NOMENCLATtlRE. 



457 



conjectures from the word itself. Such 

 conjectures would always be insecure, 

 and often erroneous. Thus the term 

 papilionaceous applied to a flower is 

 employed to indicate, not only a re- 

 semblance to a butterfly, but a resem- 

 blance arising from five petals of a 

 certain peculiar shape and arrange- 

 ment ; and even if the resemblance 

 were much stronger than it is in such 

 cases, yet, if it were produced in a 

 different way, as, for example, by one 

 petal or two only, instead of a * stan- 

 dard ' two * wings,' and a * keel ' con- 

 sisting of two parts more or less united 

 into one, we should be no longer jus- 

 tified in speaking of it as a * papilio- 

 naceous ' flower." 



When, however, the thing named 

 is, as in this last case, a combination 

 of simple sensations, it is not neces- 

 sary, in order to learn the meaning of 

 the word, that the student should refer 

 back to the sensations themselves ; it 

 may be communicated to him through 

 the medium of other words ; the 

 terms, in short, may be defined. But 

 the names of elementary sensations, 

 or elementary feelings of any sort, 

 cannot be defined ; nor is there any 

 mode of making their signification 

 known but by making the learner 

 experience the sensation, or referring 

 him, through some known mark, to 

 his remembrance of having experi- 

 enced it before. Hence it is only the 

 impressions on the outward senses, or 

 those inward feelings which are con- 

 nected in a very obvious and uniform 

 manner with outward objects, that 

 are really susceptible of an exact de- 

 scriptive language. The countless 

 variety of sensations which arise, for 

 instance, from disease, or from pecu- 

 liar physiological states, it would be 

 in vain to attempt to name ; for as no 

 one can judge whether the sensation 

 I have is the same with his, the name 

 cannot have, to us two, real commu- 

 nity of meaning. The same may be 

 said to a considerable extent of purely 

 mental feelings. But in some of the 

 sciences which are conversant with 

 external objects, it is scarcely possible 



to surpass the perfection to which this 

 quality of a philosophical language has 

 been carried. 



"The formation* of an exact and 

 extensive descriptive language for bo- 

 tany has been executed with a degree 

 of skill and felicity, which, before it 

 was attained, could hardly have been 

 dreamt of as attainable. Every part 

 of a plant has been named ; and the 

 form of every part, even the most 

 minute, has had a large assemblage 

 of descriptive terms appropriated to 

 it, by means of which the botanist can 

 convey and receive knowledge of form 

 and structure, as exactly as if each 

 minute part were presented to him 

 vastly magnified. This acquisition 

 was part of the Linnaean reform. . . . 

 'Toumefort,' says Decandolle, 'ap- 

 pears 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 words ; but it was 

 Linnaeus who really created and fixed 

 this botanical language, and this is 

 his fairest claim to glory, for by this 

 fixation of language he has shed clear- 

 ness 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 

 part 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 : peri- 

 carp, for the part enclosing the grain, 

 of whatever kind it be, fruit, nut, pod, 

 &c. And, it may easily be imagined 

 that descriptive terms may, by defini- 

 tion and combination, become very 



* Hi$t, Sc. Id., ii. 1H-X13. 



