Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/259

 Rh upon it. "The Pubescence," says he, "is a ridiculous distinction, being for the most part effaced by culture." After quoting examples, he concludes: "We are therefore not to have recourse to the hairiness or spines of plants but in case of absolute necessity." Such necessity every botanist will allow to have existed in the Menthæ and in Myosotis scorpioides; and though the degree of pubescence varies from culture, and even its structure be changeable, as in Hedypnois hispida, ''Engl. Bot. t. 554, and hirta, t.'' 555, its direction is I believe as little liable to exception as any character that vegetables present.