GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 



It is not to be expected that the Latin Nomenclature of 

 Botanists should always display the purity of the golden, or 

 even of the silver age, of Roman literature : because it is im- 

 possible to select such expressions only as are found in the 

 Koman writers of that period, as the designations of objects 

 which were altogether unknown to those writers ; yet it is to 

 be expected, that he who writes Latin, should neither mis- 

 take nor disregard the laws of grammar and of composition, 

 <nor the spirit of the language in which he expresses himself. 



9. 



Where the Latin language cannot be employed, where the 

 necessary compositions are either foreign or adverse to the 

 spirit of that language, we betake ourselves to the richer and 

 more pliant dialect of the Greeks. Only here also, the terms 

 must be chosen according to the laws of the grammar and 

 composition of that language. We must be on our guard 

 not to employ what have been called hybrid expressions, or 

 words compounded from both the learned languages, (as, for 

 example, muscologia^ algologia^ ovfndcs); or to exchange 

 customary and intelligible Latin terms for unusual, often 

 strange and falsely compounded Greek expressions. 



10. 



The first principle of Botanical Nomenclature is, That each 

 distinct form, and every diifer-ent organ, be designated by a 

 ipeculiar expression. By following out this principle, all 

 wavering of ideas, all uncertainty of knowledge, is avoided. 

 In conformity with this law, we call the leaves of the branches 

 and stem, /oZm ; the leafy appendages of the leaves, stijmlfE ; 

 the leaves in the neighi)ourhood of the flower, hractefE ; the 

 parts of the cover of the flower and of the cajyx, sepala ; 

 and^ lastly, the divisions of t^e corolla, petala. In the same 

 manner must the elliptical form of the leaves, the varied 

 Tounding or tapering of their summits, be designated by pe- 

 culiar expressions. ' '? - 



We may easily, however, go too far in this process, ,by 

 assigning different terms to every small additional variety of 



