A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

per se: prepositional phrase (per (prep. + acc.) and se (acc.sg. and pl., (him/her/it, them self/selves, reflexive pronoun of the third person(s)); see ‘sui;’ “of an object considered as receiving or affected by itw own act: ‘himself, herself, itself, themselves” (sui, reflexive pronoun in Lewis & Short).

per (prep. + acc.): by means of, by, on account of, due to, through (the means of).

per se: the agent, instrument, or means ‘through, by, by means of;’

per se: through himself, by himself, of himself.

1. STRICTLY SPEAKING (properly speaking; in itself, in essence, in its own right; technically speaking; in itself or oneself or themselves; in and of itself, exactly):

- phyllodium non folium per se, a phyllodium is not exactly a leaf [i.e. not a leaf in its strict sense].

- muscus non Hypnum per se, a moss, while not a Hypnum in a strict sense [i.e. while not precisely a Hypnum].

- baccas in fictili aut aheno per se ad mediocrem consistentiam coquunt, nullo addito liquore (Ray), they cook the berries in an earthern or, strictly speaking, a brass [or copper, sc. vessel], to a medium consistency [i.e. thickness], with no liquid added.

- [a term] acus,-eris, purgamentum frumenti, palea. [in English] ‘The Chaff.’ Porro Acus Plinio dicitur cum per se spica pinsitur; palea vero ubi cum stipula teritur in area (Ray), [the term] ‘acus,-eris,’ the chaff [i.e. the discarded debris of the grain after threshing] of the grain, is the palea. [In English] ‘The Chaff.’ Long ago [the term] was called by Pliny the ‘acus’ when the ear per se [i.e. STRICTLY SPEAKING] was threshed; but ‘chaff’ when, with the straw, it was treaded out on the threshing floor.

- baccas in fictili aut aheno per se ad mediocrem consistentiam coquunt, nullo addito liquore (Ray), they cook the berries in an earthern or, strictly speaking, a brass [or copper, sc. vessel], to a medium consistency [i.e. thickness], with no liquid added.

- Phlegma per se proprie loquendo est humiditas elementaris (Ray), ‘phlegma’ technically speaking, is an elemental moisture.

- colliguntur nempe antherae ex hoc musco, quae tenuissimae & levissimae sunt substantiae, coloris aureo-sulphurei, inflammabiles ad ignem candelae, & per se quoque, ut & flores Lycopodii Dod. (Ray), certainly, the anthers, from this moss, which are very thin and very light weight in substance, of a golden-sulphur color, are inflammable at the flame of a candle, and also, strictly speaking, as are also the flowers of Lycopodium Dod.

2. ON ITS/THEIR OWN (by its/their own (inherent) power, intrinsically; by nature; through itself, by itself or themselves, of itself alone; unaided);

- cum plantarum nonnullarum eximiae etiam magnitudinis caules infirmiores sint quam ut per se subsistant, quin humi provolvantur, necesse est in alienis adminiculis sustententur (Ray), when the stems of some plants, even those of exceptional size, might be weaker than that they may stand on their own [i.e. by their own power], even that they may be tumbled down onto the ground, it is necessary that they should be held up by separate props.

- Anadendras Lupulus, per se infirmus, facile redicis proxima adminicula quae apprehendit, conscendit (Ray), Anadendras Lupuls, weak on its own [i.e. by nature], easily climbs up, you reply, as it grasps the nearest props.

- Dodonaeus Polypodium per se haudquaquam purgare scribit (Ray), Dodonaeus writes that polypody, in and of itself [i.e. on its own], does not purge at all[i.e. except when mixed with other agents].