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ClIAP. I.
O f the Nomenclature o f Plants.
984. Tìic noinendatìire o f plants ìndnàQS \h<ò names of tlieir different parts, and the
names of the cla.sses, orders, tribes, genera, species, varieties, and sub-varieties, under
whicb they arc arranged. Oiu- authorities for this chapter are, chiefly, De Candolle,
and Lindley.
Sect. I. Names o f the different Parts o f Plants.
985. Glossology, or ihe terms used in Botany. A ll the arts and sciences require to
express, with brevity and perspicuity, a crowd of ideas unused in common language,
and unknown to the greater part of men. Botany, having to describe a great variety
of organs, which differ widely in thefr forms, requires a great variety of terms. Nearly
all botanists are agreed as to these terms ; and, in order that they may be universally
understood, and remain unchanged in meaning, they ai-e taken from a dead or fixed
language ; all these have technical names, and thefr qualities are described by a vaidety
of terms, which form collectively what is called glossology. Some of these terms ai-e
essential, as it is impossible to describe a plant satisfactorily without employing them ;
but others, comprising some hundreds of words, arc of little practical use to gardeners,
aud are here omitted, as they would occupy too much space, and as they may be fully
studied by those who wish to learn them in the botanical works of Dr. Lindley, Prof.
Henslow, and others.
986. The terms o f hotany described by Dr.'-Lindley as either collective or
individual. The individual are again divided into the absolute and the relative ; the
absolute being those which relate to figure, division, surface, texture, size, dm-ation,
colour, variegation, and veining; and the relative, those which relate to æstivation,
dfrection, and insertion. The collective terms relate to ai-rangeraent and number. This
mode of grouping the terms together is intended to facilitate the labour of acquiring
them.
Sect. I I. Names o f Plants collectively and individually.
987. The nomenclature o f plants, collectively and individually. The whole vegetable
kingdom is divided into classes, orders, genera, species, and varieties. A class is distinguished
by some character which is common to many plauts; an order or a tribe is
distinguished by having some chai-acter limited to a few plants belonging to a class ;
a StiU more limited coincidence constitutes a genus ; and each individual of a genus,
ivhich continues unchanged when raised from seed, is called a species. A vai-icty is
foi-med hy an accidental deviation from the specific character, and easily returns by seed
to the particular species from which it arose.
Subsect. 1. Names o f Classes and Orders.
988. The names o f ihe Linncean classes and orders are, as far as practicable, expressive
of some common chai-acter belonging to aU the plants which compose them, and consist
only of one word for the class, and another for the order, both compounded from the
Greek. There are exceptions, however, to the first rule iu several of the classes of the
sexual system, as in Icosandria, Monoe'cia, Dioe'cia, which contain plants that have not
tlie circumstances expressed in the title.
989. The names o f the classes and orders o f the Natural System have long been in a
veiy unsettled state, almost eveiy botanist who has written upon that system having
suggested different names for the orders and classes, and a different mode of airanging
them. The foUowing is a sketch of some of the principal modes that have been adopted,
abridged from Dr. Lindley’s Vegetable Kingdom : —
l ia y , who first broached the idea of a Natural System, arranged his plants into those with flowers, and
those without ; and those with flowers he divided into Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons, from the
number of their seed leaves. His orders were nearly th e same as those of Jussieu.
LinnÆus)o& only the fragments of a Natural System. In it there were no classes, but nearly seventy
orders, which were named in a most irregular manner, sometimes from the names, and sometimes from
th e peculiarities of the plants contained in them.
Ju s s ie u had three principal classes, which he named from th e number o f their cotyledons, and which
were divided into sub-classes and tribes ; the first named from the number of their petals, and the second
from the position of their stamens, and corolla, and th e form of their anthers. T h e orders he named
generally from the prmcipal genus contained in each ; sometimes merely changing the name of the genus
into plural, according to the usual rules of the Latin language ; and sometimes changing the last
syllable into aceoe. In some few cases, the orders were not named from the genera, but from the peculiarities
o fth e plants contained in them, such as Labiàtæ, Umbelllfer.-G, Leguminôsæ, Crucîferæ, &c.
D e Candolle, m his T héorie E lém e n ta ir e de la B o ta n iq u e , divides plants into two great classes, from their
physiological construction. These were again divided and named, first, from the number of their cotyledons,
and their mode of forming wood ; and, secondly, from the number and position of their petals.
These sub-classes were again divided into cohorts, or alliances, principally from the construction of the
seed-vessels. Most of the orders were named by adding ceæ to the name of the principal genus in each
order, as Rosàcece, from Rò sa ; or by changing the last syllable into eoe, as R h am n eoe , from R h am n u s ,
M c n ts p irm ix , im m M m i s p i fm u m , Stc. The names of LoguminSsae, CrucSferie, &c., were retained. It is
tins arrangement which is now generally understood when speaking of the Natural System ; and on this
account It Will hereafter be given more in detail.
Ag a rd h , in 18*25, published a small work called Classes P la n ta rum , the object of which was to group the
n atural orders into a kind of classes, equivalent to what were afterwards called alliances ; and in 1830 Pro-
tessor Bartlmg published a work of a similar nature, though without making any allusion to that of
BBiisshhoopp AAggaarrddhh.
D r . L in d lc y , in the first edition of his In tro d u c tio n to the N a tu r a l S y s tem o f B o ta n y , published in 1830
proposed a slight modification of D e Candolle’s plan, by which the arrangement of the orders was some-
wha^t changed, Umbellifer« being placed first instead of Jianunculaceas, &c. In 1833, Dr. Lindlev
published his N tx u s P la n ta rum , which, he says, “ was an attempt, in imitation of Agardh and Bartling, to
reduce the Natural Orders into groups subordinate to the higher divisions. Such groups were called
(tendencies). The author threw aside the distinctions between perigynous and hypogv-nous
insertion, as uncertain and leading to bad grouping ; insisted upon the value of albumen as a primary
- . ------- --—'— „,... » ,... ..¿/..I./,. ..J u.icg f.i X ciii UMILI ciiu adopted !.. .. iiiMLA
was nearly the same as that proposed in the N ix u s P la n ta r um . “ An attempt was also made to reform
the nomenclature of the Natural System, by making all the names of divisions of the same value end in
the same way. The orders were distinguished by ending in acoe, the sub-orders in cæ, the alliances in
ales, and certain combinations called groups in osce." { Ib id . p. xlvi.) In 1838, in an article entitled
Exo g en s, m V a eP e n n y Cyclopoedia, Dr. Lindley proposed anew arrangementbasedchiefly on the quantitv
oi albumen in the seeds; and dividing the Exogenous plants into five classes, depending on the
torrnation of the flowers. In 1839, m th e miscellaneous matter of the Bota n ica l Reg iste r. Dr. Lindlev
published an improvement of this plan, by which the number of primary classes was increased to eight •
in 1846, he published his latest and most perfect plan, on which his great work entitled The Vegetable
Kin g d om is arranged. According to this plan, plants are divided into the asexual or flowerless, and the
sexual or flowering ; and subdivided into seven classes, each class containing several alliances or groups,
and each group several orders. In all there are fifty-six groups or alliances, and 303 orders.
S u b s e c t . 2 . Names o f Genera.
_ 990. The generic names o f plants are usually foi-med from the Greek, and they sometimes
express a quality belonging to the plant; as, for instance, the Chimonánthus, or
winter-flower, is so called because it blossoms in December; and the Nemóphila, which
signifies a lover of the woods, has received that name because generally, in a wild state,
it is found under the shade of trees. In some cases the generic name of a plant alludes
to the country of which the plant is a native; as the Araucaria is so called from the
Araucarians, a people of Chili, iu whose country the tree gi-ows. But by far the gi-eater
number of generic names are given in honour of botanists and other persons whom the
namer of the plant has wislied to compliment. It may easily be supposed that, as these
appellations are only proper names with Latin tei-minations, they are sometimes
extremely barbarous, and hence they have been sometimes so much changed as to
render it diflicult to recognise the person from whom the genus received its appellation.
Thus, without explanation, no one would guess that Gundèl/a was derived from
Gundelscheimer; or that Gooden/a was introduced by Sir J . E. Smith to coramcmoi-ate
the name of his friend Dr. Goodenough. Another difficulty in naming plants after
persons has arisen in the case of the French botanists, from some of them having a
second or territorial name in addition to their proper name, and fi-om plants being sometimes
named after one and sometimes after the other. Hence, Pittonia was applied to the
plant consecrated to Pitton de Tournefort; but Linnæus prefen-ed the name by which
alone he was known out of his countiy, or in learaed language, and called the same genus
Tournefórt/a. A fanciful analogy between botanists and tlie plants named after them
was made by Linnæus in the Critica Botanica. Thus, Baulnn/o, named after the two
distinguished brothers John and Caspar Banhin, has a two-lobcd or twin leaf. Scheuch-
zcr/a, a gi-assy alpine plant, commemorates the two Scheuchzers, one of whom excelled
in the knowledge of alpine productions, the other in that of gi-asses.
S u b s e c t . 3. Names o f Species.
991. Specific names are generally Latin adjectives, used to express some quality in
the plant ; such as Bánks/a scrràta, integi-ifolia, dentàta, &c. ; or Ixora álba and
coccínea, Scleránthns ánnuus and pcrénnis, Alètris fi-àgrans, -Saxífraga cénnia, &c.
Names derived from the size of the flower or leaf are, however, often inconvenient, as
sometimes after a plant has heen named grandiflòra, or grandifôlia, anothei- plant,
with still larger flowers or leaves, is discovered in the same genus. Comparative
appellations are veiy good, as Bánks/a a-icifòlia, Andrómeda salicifôlia. Saxífraga
òi-yóìdes, &c. Names which express the local situations of different species are
excellent ; such as A/elampyrum aiwense, pratènse, nemorôsum, and sylváticum,
Càrex _ arenària, iiliginosa, and sylvàtica, as well as palùstris, aquàtica, maritmia,
mpéstris, alpina, nivàlis, used for many plants. But names derived from particulai-
countries or districts are liable to much exception, few plants being sufficiently local
to justify their nse. Thus, Zigústicum cornubiénse is found, not only in Cornwall, but
in Portugal, Italy, and Greece ; Schwcnck/a americana grows iu Guinea, as well as in
South America. Such, therefore, though suffered to remain on the authority of Lin-
noeus, will seldom or never be imitated by any judicious writer, unless TrCllius em-opæ'us
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