FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127  
128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   >>   >|  
ersonal interest to him. 21. I have used the word 'Order' as the name of our widest groups, in preference to 'Class,' because these widest groups will not always include flowers like each other in form, or equal to each other in vegetative rank; {189} but they will be 'Orders,' literally like those of any religious or chivalric association, having some common link rather intellectual than national,--the Charites, for instance, linked by their kindness,--the Oreiades, by their mountain seclusion, as Sisters of Charity or Monks of the Chartreuse, irrespective of ties of relationship. Then beneath these orders will come, what may be rightly called, either as above in Greek derivation, 'Genera,' or in Latin, 'Gentes,' for which, however, I choose the Latin word, because Genus is disagreeably liable to be confused on the ear with 'genius'; but Gens, never; and also 'nomen gentile' is a clearer and better expression than 'nomen generosum,' and I will not coin the barbarous one, 'genericum.' The name of the Gens, (as 'Lucia,') with an attached epithet, as 'Verna,' will, in most cases, be enough to characterize the individual flower; but if farther subdivision be necessary, the third order will be that of Families, indicated by a 'nomen familiare' added in the third place of nomenclature, as Lucia Verna,--Borealis; and no farther subdivision will ever be admitted. I avoid the word 'species'--originally a bad one, and lately vulgarized beyond endurance--altogether. And varieties belonging to narrow localities, or induced by horticulture, may be named as they please by the people living near the spot, or by the gardener who grows them; but will not be acknowledged by Proserpina. Nevertheless, the arbitrary reduction under Ordines, Gentes, and Familiae, {190} is always to be remembered as one of massive practical convenience only; and the more subtle arborescence of the infinitely varying structures may be followed, like a human genealogy, as far as we please, afterwards; when once we have got our common plants clearly arranged and intelligibly named. 22. But now we find ourselves in the presence of a new difficulty, the greatest we have to deal with in the whole matter. One new nomenclature, to be thoroughly good, must be acceptable to scholars in the five great languages, Greek, Latin, French, Italian, and English; and it must be acceptable by them in teaching the native children of each country. I shall not be satisfied, u
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127  
128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
acceptable
 

common

 

widest

 

groups

 

nomenclature

 
Gentes
 
farther
 

subdivision

 
reduction
 

Ordines


Familiae

 

Proserpina

 
Nevertheless
 

arbitrary

 
acknowledged
 

varieties

 
vulgarized
 
endurance
 

originally

 

admitted


species

 

altogether

 

people

 

living

 

horticulture

 

induced

 

remembered

 

belonging

 

narrow

 

localities


gardener

 
scholars
 

matter

 

presence

 

difficulty

 
greatest
 

languages

 
country
 

children

 
satisfied

native
 

teaching

 
French
 
Italian
 

English

 

varying

 
infinitely
 

structures

 
arborescence
 

subtle