28 FLORA INDICA. 



the most important gi-oups of phenomena requiring elucida- 

 tion and careful description are,— 1. The changes that accom- 

 pany the growth of individual organs from the seedling state 

 to the decaying plant. 2. Variations in the same organs, as 

 displayed in different parts of the same individual. 3. Varia- 

 tions in the development and distribution of the sexual or- 

 gans in plants with unisexual flowers, and in bisexual plants. 



It is to our neglect, and often to our ignorance, of the 

 changes in form that so many organs undergo during the dif- 

 ferent stages of the life of the individual, or of the different 

 form under which they appear in different parts of the same 

 individual, that we owe so many of the spurious species 

 which crowd the pages of our systematic works; and it is 

 to the want of that early training to habits of observation in 

 the field, which we have so strenuously advocated, that is to 

 be attributed the rarity of that power of discrimination be- 

 tween essential and non-essential characters, which alone can 

 make an observer a sound systematist. We therefore ear- 

 nestly recommend to the Indian botanist the detailed study 

 of individuals and their organs*, with the view of determin- 

 ing their limits of variation. In relative size especially, the 

 observer will find immense variation ; for, unlike the animal 

 creation, proportional dimensions are of small moment in the 

 vegetable kingdom. This fact, so familiar to the botanist of 

 experience, is always a puzzle to the zoologist, who fancies he 

 perceives a vagueness and want of exactness in all botanical 

 writings (except in those of the too numerous class that make 

 a parade of measuring to lines organs that vary by inches), 

 that contrasts unfavourably with descriptive zoology. Sym- 

 metry again is only a relative term amongst plants, for even 

 such leaves as gTow in pairs are never alike, and often differ 

 much in form, texture, and colour ; whilst the various sepals, 

 petals, etc., of an individual flower, never so exactly corre- 

 spond, as the relative members of an animal do ; and there are 



'^ 111 Wight and Amott's ' Prodromus,' p. xxi., tliis point is especially dwelt 

 upon, and a warning given to beginners, which has been too Utlie attended to. 



