OUTLINES OF BOTANY. 
CHap, I. Derrinttions AND Descriptive Borany, 
1, The principal object of a Flora of a country, is to afford the means 
of determining (t.e. ascertaining the name of) any plant growing in it, 
whether for the purpose of ulterior study or of intellectual exercise. 
2. With this view, a Flora consists of descriptions of all the wild or 
native plants contained in the country in question, so drawn up and ar- 
ranged that the student may identify with the corresponding description 
any individual specimen which he may gather. 
3. These descriptions should be clear, concise, accurate, and characte- 
ristic, so-as that each one should be readily adapted to the plant it relates 
to, and to no other one; they should be as nearly as possible arranged 
under natural (184) divisions, so as to facilitate the comparison of each 
plant with those nearest allied to it; and they should be accompanied by 
an artificial key or index, by means of which the student may be guided 
step by step in the observation of such peculiarities or characters in his 
plant, as may lead him, with the least delay, to the individual description 
belonging to it. 
4, For descriptions to be clear and readily intelligible, they should be 
expressed as much as possible in ordinary well-established language. But, 
for the purpose of accuracy, it is necessary not only to give a more precise 
technical meaning to many terms used more or less vaguely in common 
conversation, but also to introduce purely technical names for such parts of 
_ plants or forms as are of little importance except to the botanist. In the 
present chapter it is proposed to define such technical or technically limited 
terms as are made use of in these Floras. 
5. At the same time mathematical accuracy must not be expected. The 
forms and appearances assumed. by plants and their parts are infinite. 
Names cannot be invented for all; those even that have been proposed are 
too numerous for ordinary memories. Many are derived from supposed 
resemblances to well-known forms or objects. These resemblances are 
differently appreciated by different persons, and the same term is not only 
differently applied by two different botanists, but it frequently happens 
