985. Glossology, or the terms used in Botany. All 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 their 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 are taken from a dead or fixed language; all these have technical names, and their qualities are described by a variety of terms, which form collectively what is called glossology. Some of these terms are essential, as it is impossible to describe a plant satisfactorily without employing them; but others, comprising some hundreds of words, are of little practical use to gardeners, and 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.
