66 LAWS OP NOMENCLATXJEE. 



authorSj or in the classical work of Pritzel, which comprises 

 all botanists anterior to 1841^ one is obliged to read over all 

 the names that begin by the first letter of the abbreviation, 

 there being frequent hesitation between this or that, or even 

 impossibility to arrive at finding out the true one. 



Here are, for instance, some unguessable abbreviations 

 taken from recent works : ' — 



Ktzsch. H. Bn. Brm. 

 Brghtw. Brn. Btt. 



HK. Hsch. Spng. 



We know by experience that in certain works Ord. signi- 

 fies Orsted; that Bth. signifies Bentham, rather than 

 Booth; that Sz. signifies Schultz rather than Steetz or 

 Szovics J but that a young botanist should know this by in- 

 tuition is out of the question. 



If, at least, the last letter of the name were to be placed 

 above, as Or*, we should understand the abbreviation much 

 better ; but between r and d, in Ord., you may imagine that 

 there are several vowels or diphthongs, and it may be thought 

 there are more vowels after the d. 



In an abbreviation such as Krst. (for Karsten ?), nothing 

 can lead you to suppose that there is a vowel after the first 

 letter; it might, with just as much probability, be after the 

 second. 



What renders this mode of abbreviation so enigmatical, 

 is the great number of vowels or diphthongs employed in 

 difierent tongues. We are not only obliged to look among 

 Latin names, or among those belonging to Latin tongues, 

 but also among German, Danish, Hungarian, Bohemian, 

 Eussian names, etc., which have different letters and 

 different combinations of vowels. If you write Hook, for 

 Hooker, any beginner will understand you; the signifi- 

 cation will easily; be found by referring to Pritzel, as few 

 botanists^ names begin by those four letters. But only 



1 We could easily say what works and at what pages, but out of 

 respect for the authors, we think the citation of these hieroglyphics 

 quite sufficient. 



