153 
STUDY OF BOTANY. * 
It is long since any notice has been taken of this subject ; and we cannot help 
thinking that the science itself is gradually— but progressively— losing ground. 
We hear not of it : no mention of it is made among gardeners or amateurs, and 
therefore, it becomes an affair of some interest to inquire " why is it thus V 
We may labour under a mistake, perhaps, but cannot help thinking, that since 
the introduction of prizes for florists' flowers, and the emulation to excel has been 
thereby so highly exalted, floriculture has superseded the science upon which it is 
founded. Nor perhaps is this to be wondered at, inasmuch as the beauties which 
have been of late displayed — exciting new efforts, and tasking all the energies of 
rival florists— are so surpassing, that no opportunity is left for the mere calm 
investigation of natural structure. 
Floriculture, as now pursued, is a system of excitement ; beauty, form, and 
grace, are its objects : it has nothing in common with scientific classification. 
Entertaining these views, we should not have contemplated the present article, 
had not a paper in the Gardeners 9 Chronicle of June 28 arrested immediate 
attention. It is entitled 44 Botanical Nomenclature," and the following is its first 
paragraph. 
44 No one who has had experience in the progress of Botany, as a science, can 
doubt that it has been more impeded in this country by the repulsive appearance 
of the names which it employs, than by any other cause whatsoever ; and that, in 
fact, this circumstance has proved an invincible obstacle to its becoming the serious 
occupation of those who are unacquainted with the learned languages, or who, 
being acquainted with them, are fastidious about euphony, and Greek or Latin 
purity." 
This is excellent ; it is the 44 breaking ground " for an attempt to reconstruct 
the nomenclature of that which, whether it be agreeable or not to the ear, obscures, 
at any rate, the true meaning of terms, and teaches him who 44 occupies the place 
of the unlearned," to give utterance to mere sounds, not one of which he is able to 
understand or appreciate. As examples of these— -to some extent outlandish 
terms — which are continually recurring in the so-called natural system of Botany, 
we extract the following from the notice referred to : — ■ 
44 The names by which the great groups of plants are known, are few in 
number, and very often in use. There is no reason why we should not at once 
English them ; the practice, indeed, is already adopted to some extent by the 
substitution of the words Monocotyledons, Dicotyledons, Exogens, Endogens, 
Cryptogams, Phsenogams, &c, for Monocotyledons, Dicotyledons, Exogense, 
Endogenae, Cryptogamae, Phaenogamse, &c. It is even carried farther, by 
speaking of Rosaceous plants instead of Rosacew" &c. 
VOL. XII.— NO. CXXX1X. X 
