vi TNTRODUCTION TO BRITISH BOTANY 



as they remain mere sounds. When he has gained a knowledge of 

 the things for which they stand, they will lose their formidable 

 appearance, and, hard as they may still be to pronounce, they will 

 very soon become familiar to the mind, if not to the tongue. In 

 a scientific treatise on Botany, taken in its widest sense, these 

 terms must of necessity be very numerous. Not so, however, with 

 a popular description of the plants growing wild in a single country 

 of limited extent ; the author, therefore, has endeavoured to keep 

 technical terms as much as possible out of sight, in the hope that 

 the lover of Nature may be beguiled into forming an acquaintance 

 with the outward appearance of the plants of his neighbourhood, 

 and eventually be induced to study their characters, or to extend 

 his researches beyond the limits of his own country. He has, 

 consequently, avoided the use of Latin words wherever English 

 ones would do as well, and has often preferred to express by several 

 words what might have been defined by on%, because that one was 

 probably strange to the reader. With respect to the organs of 

 plants, he has not noticed the existence of any but those with which 

 it is necessary that the student should be familiar before he refers 

 to the body of the work for a description of any plant which he 

 may have found ; these, with their principal peculiarities, may be 

 described at once. They are, Root, Steji, Leaf, Stipules, Bracts, 

 Flower, Calyx, Corolla, Stamens, Pistils, Fruit, Seed, Re- 

 ceptacle, and Nect.vry. 



The Root. — The most frequent form of the root is a tuft of 

 fibres, each of which ends in a porous substance serving to absorb 

 moisture from the soil. In many instances, however, the nourish- 

 ment thus obtained, instead of being transmitted at once ta that 

 part of the plant which rises above the ground, is lodged in another 

 organ, which, though partaking in some measure the properties of 

 root and stem, is distinct from both. This, too, with the fibres 

 attached to it, is called a root, the fibres themselves being named 

 rootlets. The principal forms of the root are : — 



The Creeping Root, familiar examples of which are afforded by 

 Couch-grass and Great Bindweed. 



The Spindle-shaped Root ; examples, Carrot and Parsnep. 



A spindle-shaped root which ends abruptly is termed prcmorse 

 (bitten off), as in Premorse Scabious, p. 146. 



The Tuberous Root consists of one or more roundish solid ma.sses, 

 having the power of producing rootlets and buds from several parts 

 of its surface, as the Potato. 



The Bnlboits Rool is a solid roundish mass, producing rootlets at 

 the lower extremity, and a bud at the other ; it consists either of 

 fleshy scales, as in the White Lily ; concentric circles, as in the 

 Onion ; or is of one uniform substance throughout, as in the Crocus. 

 This last is sometimes called a conn. 



