506 
B O O K IV. 
PHYTOGRAPHY ; OR, OF THE RULES TO BE OBSERVED 
IN DESCRIBING AND NAMING PLANTS. 
I NOW proceed to investigate the principles upon which plants 
are described and named. It would be impossible for any 
person to recognise a plant which had been discovered by 
another, unless such a description of it were put upon record 
as should express all its essential features ; and unless it were, 
at the same time, furnished with a distinctive name, it could 
never be subsequently spoken of intelligibly. For these 
reasons, the mode of describing and naming plants is one of 
the most important practical subjects in the science. 
It may appear, at first sight, extremely easy to describe a 
plant, and we constantly find travellers and others attempting 
to do so in vulgar language ; but their accounts are usually 
so vague, that no distinct idea can be formed of the subject 
of their descriptions, which remains an enigma until some 
botanist, following their steps, shall happen to be able to put 
its characters into scientific language. 
The great object of descriptions in Natural History is, to 
enable any person to recognise a known species, after its sta- 
tion has been discovered in a classification ; and also to put 
those who have not had the opportunity of examining a plant 
themselves into possession of all the facts necessary to acquire 
a just notion of its structure and affinities. 
There are two means of effecting this object ; the one by 
means of detailed descriptions, the other by the aid of briefer 
abstracts of the most essential characters only. 
