GLOSSARY. 
89 
price; but I am not disposed to grant it the palm even in this 
respect, for if the expense alone has to be considered, without 
reference to other qualifications, it is questionable whether a 
wooden tank, covered with slabs of slate, could not be fixed at 
even a less cost, with the advantage of having a certain steady 
means of heating at command, which cannot be disarranged, and 
which will work equal to the most expensive, and probably last 
longer than the furnace of the Polmaise method. It has been 
said that the grapes produced in the vinery, subject to this mode 
of heating, were so superior, that the gardeners of Stirling were 
afraid to compete with them; the shallowness of this boast has 
been exposed in the statement, that the vines were young but 
just in a bearing state, and that they could scarcely be said to 
have been forced at all. Any system which requires the bolstering 
this has received is, to say the least of it, suspicious. 
Hortulanus. 
GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN BOTANICAL 
DESCRIPTIONS. 
Deflexed. Having a gradual curvature from the base to the 
apex, bent downwards. 
Deflorated. Past flowering, descriptive of the floral organs 
when past their beauty. 
Dehiscence. The bursting of a seed vessel for the escape of 
the seed, or the opening of an anther for the distribution of 
pollen : thus all leguminous plants have dehiscent seed ves¬ 
sels ; and in Datura, the dehiscence is at the several angles of 
the pericarp. 
Deliguescent. Descriptive of the ramification of branches 
when they occur so equally as to remove the centre or 
main stem, so also in the case of many peduncles, where 
the middle pedicle is absent. 
Deltoid. Having a triangular outline, either at the margin or 
in the transverse section. 
Demersus. Submerged, applied to the leaves and other parts 
of aquatic plants which are constantly covered with water. 
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