370 
BOOK III. 
glossology; or, of the terms used in botany. 
In order to comprehend tlie language of botanists, it is ne- 
cessary that the unusual terms or words which are employed 
in writing upon the subject, and which are either different 
from words in vulgar use, or which are in botany employed in 
a particular sense, should be fully explained. 
It is a very common plan to mix up Glossology with 
Organography, or to confound the definition and explanation of 
those characterestic terms of the science which are universally 
applicable, with the description of particular organs : but this 
plan is attended with many inconveniences, and is far less 
simple than to treat of the two separately. It was an error 
into which Linnaeus fell, in composing his admirable Philo- 
sophia Botanica; and is the more remarkable, if the logical pre- 
cision with which that work is otherwise composed be con- 
sidered. Instead of distinguishing those terms which have a 
general application to all plants or parts of plants, according 
to circumstances, from such as have a particular application, 
and relate only to special modifications, he placed under 
his definition of each organ those terms which he knew to 
be applicable to it ; but, as it was not his practice to repeat 
terms after they had been once explained, it frequently 
happened that beginners in the science, finding a given term 
explained once only, and with reference to a particular 
organ, fell into the mistake of supposing that that term 
was applicable only to the organ under which it was ex- 
plained. To avoid this difficulty, other botanists have col- 
