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PART in. 



PHYTOGRAPHY, 



OR 



DESCRIPTIVE BOTANY. 



CHAP. I. 

 ON THE NAMES OF PLANTS. 

 211. 



TP HE original names of plants are those by which they have 

 been designated in every country by common use. The most 

 ancient writers on botany have availed themselves of these 

 names only ; and as the common use of language is subject 

 to no rules, the same names were formerly given to the most 

 different plants, when they had only a remote or accidental 

 resemblance, and quite different names were given to near- 

 ly related plants, to those even which belong to the same 

 genus. As more plants were discovered, greater perplexity 

 must have been felt respecting their names. A remedy for 

 this perplexity was endeavoured to be obtained, by furnish- 

 ing the names of known plants with such additions, as 

 might fit them for denoting new plants which bore a re- 

 semblance to them. Hence the names Caryophyllus^ Ly- 

 simachia, ConsoUda regalis, Nasturtium^ Auricula murisy 

 and so forth, were not only assigned to an innumerable mul- 

 titude of different plants, but were accompanied with verbose 

 definitions of a more particular character, which on the one 

 hand rendered it impossible to fix tliem in the memory, and 



