CCCXN XXIV 
Mareh 1893; Prof. Albert S. Hitcheock (Manhattan, Kansas) published 
in the 4. annual report of the Missouri Botanical Garden p. 47 — 172. an 
enumeration of collected |, Plants of the Bahamas, Jamaica and Grand 
Cayman with a very interesting and long confession as to the most nomen- 
clature questions p. 48—56 in the manner of a professor's speech, but without 
any special references to the Paris Code or Berlin Cireular or Genoa Congress; 
he writes page 56: 
"In the following catalogue, the starting-point for genera and species has been 
taken at the first edition of Linnaeus' species plantarum 1753'*, with the note: "It was in- 
Comité-Mitglieder ete. zu urtheilen — mit diesem Estratto bei den Mitgliedern 
der internationalen Comité legitimirt und diesen die Funktionen der Commission 
damit zugewiesen; es muss also dieser Estratto als Urkunde betrachtet werden. 
Es ist klar, dass diese Urkunde ungiltig ist und die Mitglieder der inter- 
nationalen Commission nur vom Congress bevollmáchtigt sind, über These IV 
zu verhandeln. 
Ich schrieb an Prof. Greene am 19. Mai 1893 eine, von ihm in Erythea 
p. 155—157 abgedruckte Mittheilung, damit der náchste Congress gewarnt 
werde, die Fehler des Genueser Congresses zu wiederholen, Dabei schrieb ich 
u. &.:: , That committee got but order from the Congress to treat with Berlin 
thesis IV. What Prof. Ascherson wrote more asthereto is his free addition. 
But that Committee is a corona . . .* Nun hat Prof. Greene, den ich um 
Verbesserung meines Englisch bat, dies wie folgt übertragen: 
»ln official documents he has taken the liberty of interpolating many things 
foreign to the business of the Committee. 'The members of the Committe certainly are a 
corona of high authorities in descriptive botany, and the arguments and the opinicns of 
them all are desirable. T'hey will help the next Congress to fulfill its functions, and per- 
haps to bring order and harmony out of the present confused and unsettled state of affairs 
respecting nomenclature. But the Congress elected its Committee for the express work 
of dealing with number IV. of the Berlin Theses, and gave neither its chairman, nor any 
member, instructions to take up other matters officially.*' 
Die Worte ,in official documents'* hat aber Professor Greene jeden- 
falls nur aus eigener Erfahrung hinzugefügt. — 
Prof. Ascherson caused a part of the Atti del Congresso to be reprinted 
and forwarding it to the members of the international Commission for Botanical 
Nomenclature at least 3 months before the Atti were published, he — without 
any doubt — used that reprint as a document for legitimating himself and 
the duties of that Committee. But by omitting the words (Atti pag. 439) 
di eui parla il quarto articulo dei Botanici di Berlino the autori- 
sation. given by Congress to the Commission was altered to treat of all 
questions of nomenclature instead of the Berlin IV proposition only. But this 
alteration and that document is not valid and that commission has only autori- 
sation to treat of IV. Berlin proposition — Index inhonestans. 
Mr. Ascherson se fit copier un part des ,, Atti del Congresso* et l'envoya 
aux membres de la commission internationale pour la nomenclature botanique 
au moins 3 mois avant la publication de ces Atti del Congresso; il employa 
— sans doute — ces copies comme document pour légitimer non seulement 
soi-méme, mais encore les fonctions de cette commission; mais par omission 
des paroles qui suivent: di cui parla il quarto articolo dei Botanici 
di Berlino, ce document fut faux et altéóré, de sorte que les fonctions de cette 
commission furent étendues à toutes les questions de nomenclature. L'autori- 
sation du Congrés ótait au contraire de ne s'occuper que de la Proposition 
IV. Berlinoise — Index inhonestans. 
