By this arrangement we shall have only twenty-one species to remember: the
one which chiefly decorates the ground again dividing into the above three.
6. These matters being set right, I pass to the business in hand, which is
to define as far as possible the subtle relations between the Veronicas and
Draconidae, and again between these and the tribe at present called labiate.
In my classification above, vol. i, p. 200, the Draconidae include the
Nightshades; but this was an oversight. Atropa belongs properly to the
following class, Moiridae; and my Draconids are intended to include only the
two great families of Personate and Ringent flowers, which in some degree
resemble the head of an animal: the representative one being what we call
'snapdragon,' but the French, careless of its snapping power, 'calf's
muzzle'--"Muflier, muflande, or muffle de Veau."--Rousseau, 'Lettres,' p.
19.
7. As I examine his careful and sensible plates of it, I chance also on a
bit of his text, which, extremely wise and generally useful, I translate
forthwith:--
"I understand, my dear, that one is vexed to take so much trouble without
learning the names of the plants one examines; but I confess to you in good
faith that it never entered into my plan to spare you this little chagrin.
One pretends that Botany is nothing but a science of words, which only
exercises the memory, and only teaches how to give plants names.
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