GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 
X^HE science of Botany consists of two departments, Phytology and Physiology. This 
Encyclopajdia is exclusively devoted to the former department, and it is limited to the plants 
in Britain, indigenous and exotic. 
Phytology, or the History of Plants, comprehends the knowledge of the external parts of 
plants, the determination of their names, their classification, their uses, their individual his- 
tory, and their geography. The object of this work is to convey, in the most convenient 
manner and in the least possible space, a knowledge of the various particulars which arrange 
themselves under these heads. 
A knowledge of the external parts of plants will be readily and agreeably obtained by 
turning over the first 700 pages of this work at random, looking at the engravings, and 
comparing them with the names and descriptions to which they refer ; the same process will 
enable the reader to recognise, at sight, the 10,000 species figured in the 700 pages. In this 
way, botanical figures supply the place of a botanical garden ; and the beginner learns the 
natures, the technology, and the general appearances of plants, almost as easily -and na- 
turally in the one case as he does in the other. 
To determine the name of an unknown plant, it is necessary to be furnished with a 
specimen of it in flower. The parts of the plant including those of the flower being 
already known by the process above mentioned, its class will be ascertained by the Table of 
the Linnean System (p. 2.), and its order, genus, species, &c., by turning to the page 
referred to at the end of the class. Thus, if you hold in your hand a specimen of 
Phillyrea angustifolia in flower, on counting the stamens and pistils you find it belongs to 
Class II. Order 1., from which, in the Table in p. 2., you are referred to the details of 
the class in p. 8.; you there find, under Order 1., the characters of all the genera of that 
order, and that the flower which yovi hold in your hand best agrees with the definition 
given of the genus Phillyrea, No. 33. But you wish to know the species ; and, Phillyrea 
being No. 33., you turn to that number in the details of the genex-a in the subsequent pages. 
After comparing its leaves with the specific character given of the different species, you 
find it best agrees with P. angustifolia ; and, finding this species numbered 143., you look for 
that number in the two plates of engravings in the lower parts of the pages, and find a figure 
wliich confirms your decision. By reading the abridgements in the line which follows the 
word angustifolia, together with the note to the generic name Phillyrea at the bottom of the 
page, you find in an abridged form its English name, habit, habitation in the garden, popular 
character, the height to which it grows, its time of flowering, the colour of its flower, its 
native country, the year of its introduction into Britain, its propagation, the soil in which it 
grows, a reference to a work where it is figured and described at greater length, audits uses 
in the arts, or whatever else is remarkable in its history. You find, also, the natural order to 
which the genus belongs, the etymology of the name, the French or German name, if the 
plant has a vernacular name in these languages, and, both generic and specific names being 
accentuated, you have the pronunciation. On turning to the Table of Synonymous 
Names (p. 1108.), you will find its vernacular name in the languages of the countries 
where it is common. If it is not so common in any country as to have received a 
vernacular name, it will not be found in that list. Finally, if you should not understand 
any of the terms used in the definition of the specific characters or in the notes, on turning 
to the Glossary (p. 1094.) you will find them explained, and illustrated where necessary 
by engravings. 
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