OF THE FERNS AND FLOWERING PLANTS. 155 



repeat the warning here. Among the Phanerogarnia, with 

 very rare exceptions, flower and fruit, leaves, stem and 

 root, are fully developed ; and (excluding the first-named) 

 they are equally perfect in the Feins. Consequently every 

 one of these organs ought to find a place in the herbarium. 

 There is no positive reason why the stem, or the root, 

 should be neglected any more than the flower, or the leaf. 

 And yet this is just the point in respect to which beginners 

 make the most woful mistakes. They are satisfied with 

 a moiety, when they should have the whole. An her- 

 baceous plant, for instance, is plucked off at some distance 

 above the junction of the stem with the root, and carried 

 triumphantly home as a specimen of that particular 

 species. What is the result ? Suppose it is an Orchis which 

 the tyro has in hand. He searches through one or the 

 other of the standard botanical works, and, under the head 

 of Orchis, he finds that the specific differences depend in 

 a greater or less degree on the form of the root : thus, 

 while one important subdivision has c tubers undivided,' 

 another is provided with ' palmate tubers.' Hence he is 

 reduced to guess at the name of his fragment, or at best 

 to do his work of collecting over again — not always a 

 convenient task. 



The fact is, there are peculiarities in every part of a 

 plant, from the root to the inflorescence, which cannot be 

 neglected with impunity. What a large number of species 

 depend for their due identification upon the presence of 

 the radical or root leaves, and which cannot be satisfac- 

 torily determined, unless these are under the observer's eye ! 

 The very names of some are based upon the fact of the 

 root-leaves having a totally different form to the series 

 which clothe its upper parts. It is well known that the 

 stem-leaves of the common hare-bell are narrow and linear. 

 Whence then its technical name, Campanula rotundifolia ? 

 It was given to it by the great Linnseus, who saw it in the 

 early summer forcing its way through the chinks of some 

 stone steps in the university of Upsal. At that season the 



