oe, 
EXERCISES IN PRACTICAL BOTANY. 
The following descriptions of Genera and Species have been 
selected from “ Familiar Lectures on Botany,” for the purpose 
of furnishing to the Beginner a series of Practical Exercises. 
Care has been taken to introduce such plants as Teachers can 
easily procure from the gardens and fields for their classes, and 
which are the most simple for analysis. 
* 
DIRECTIONS FOR PRONOUNCING THE NAMES OF PLANTS. 
BoranicaL names of plants are formed according to the an- 
alogies of the ancient languages, chiefly the Latin. Some of the 
most common terminations of names of Genera and Species, 
are a, um, us, and is ; for example, the generic names, GERAR- 
DIA, TRIFOLINM, PRUNUS, and IRIs; and the specific names vir- 
ginica, candidum, blandus, and officinalis. A great propor- 
tion of Botanical names terminate in a, in which case it has 
the sound of @in father, as Rosa, Viola, &c. 
The letter e at the end of a word is always to be sounded ; 
for example, Anemone, pronounced anem’-o-ne. 
The e is long before s when it ends a word, as Bicor’ nes 
pronounced Bicornees. 
_ In words that end in zdes, the 7 is long, as in Hesper’ ides. 
~ The vowels ae and oe, are often used as diphthongs, and then 
‘have the sound of e, as Hepatice, pronounced Hepat’-i-ce, and 
Di-ecia, pronounced Di-e-cia. 
Cand g,as in English, are soft before e, 7, and y, and hard 
before a, o,andu. The softsound of c, is like s, the hard sound 
like k. The soft sound of g, is like j, the hard sound like g, in 
the word gave; thus Algae is pronounced Alje. Musci is pro- 
nounced Musst. 
_. The letters ch, are hard like k, as in Orchis; pronounced 
Or-kis. 
Explanation of Letters and Characters. 
The letter 0, when affixed to the specific description, stands 
for the Latin omnibus locis, in all places, meaning that the 
plant is common ; r denotes that the colour of the flower is red. 
p. purple—y. yellow—w. white—b. blue—g. green—Ap. denotes 
that the flower blossoms in April—M. May—J. June—Ju. July 
—Au. August—S. September—Oc. October—Var. stands for 
Variety. 
