A lecture delivered in King's College, London, on Tuesday, the 11th of October, 1831, being introductory to the first botanical course of the session opening the institution / by Gilbert T. Burnett.

  • Burnett, Gilbert T. (Gilbert Thomas), 1800-1835.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture delivered in King's College, London, on Tuesday, the 11th of October, 1831, being introductory to the first botanical course of the session opening the institution / by Gilbert T. Burnett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Neither am I called on to defend the names which custom has, in general too loosely, applied thereto, and which science often, too fastidiously, condemns. Much of the ar- rangement I think very natural, and most of the terms, if used with somewhat more precision, highly expressive; (and why should not English technicalities he as carefully defined as Greek and Latin words?) and, although not all so classi- cally elegant as some of our botanical nomenclature is, they are equally intelligible, and far more euphonious than many semi-barbarous technicalities: but of this, more hereafter. 1 merely use the vulgate now, because, although I am aware that many of my hearers are well versed in botanical language, to some it may not be familiar; and hence, that every point may be explained, it is, as I have already observed, convenient to assume, even if it be a kind of legal fiction, that all are ig- norant of the subject. Hence, those who are veterans in botany will be pleased to excuse, (indeed, I know they will ever be the last to condemn,) the adoption of any method which may tend to familiarise science and facilitate the progress of the student. Who is there that has not at some time felt the galling yoke of technicalities? Who has not found, that to learn a science, and at the same time to learn a language, is indeed to have the tale of bricks demanded, while the straw to make them is denied. Let me, therefore, in conjunction with the scientific names, employ the common English synonymes, whenever such exist, and, when there are none known, translate the foreign epithets into our mother tongue; at least for the purposes of this momentary glance at the several most commonly ac- cepted sections of the vegetable world, which, by means of specimens and drawings, can be brought as it were in review before us. The first class to which I shall direct your attention con- tains several very curious types of plants which, collectively, are termed Flags, or Algce. Their English name has refe- rence to the flagging habits of a large proportion; as, for ex- ample, the sea weeds, which are usually fixed to rocks and stones, and flag, i. e. droop or float, according as the water quits them or bears them up. Alga, the technical syno- nyme, is said to be derived from ab algore, coldness, as if it had been supposed that some of these productions, which are chiefly aquatic, wei’e formed by the congelation of films or drops of water; to which, indeed, many bear no slight resem- blance. To this ancient hypothesis there seems to be allu- sion in the names of several: e. g. ulca (ab uligine,) signifies ooziness or moisture: as our English word laver, from lave7-