MITELLASTRA AND RUBACER. 229 
A. JacoBAEus. Basal leaves more broadly cuneate-obovate 
remotely and lightly yet sharply toothed all aronnd: Pods 23-3 
inches long, firmly ascending, slightly incurved, not tortuous,— 
Cuyamaca Mountains, San Diego Co., ©. R. Orcutt, July, 1889 ; 
his n. 1507, as in U. S. Herb. 
Miteilastra and Rubacer. 
Naturally interested, and even deeply and somewhat peculiarly 
interested, in the new “ NortH AMERICAN Fora,’ I was startled 
when for the first time I looked over the pages of the Saxifra- 
gaceae, as [ read that queer innovation in generic nomenclature, 
the name Mitellastra ; for I had not used or read the page of Mr. 
Howell’s book whence the name, impossible as that of a genus, 
is said to have been taken. From my friend in the Oregonian 
field, most capable as an observer and a reasoner upon matters 
of mere taxonomy, I should with reason expect errors, and maybe 
grammatic impossibilities, as to Latin nomenclature. 
Now, in the very metropolis of all North America, whence 
this new Flora of so great worth and such bright promise ema- 
nates, there should be available the services of some one in whose 
mind such mere fundamentals of phytography as I shall name 
have found a lodgment. One of these fundamentals is the knowl- 
edge that each genus and each species is an abstraction of the 
mind, and, as such, a unit; that every particular genus and every 
particular species is as certainly a unit as every individual plant 
is a unit; that, therefore, every generic name and every specific 
name is necessarily of the singular number. The other funda- 
mental is, a fair knowledge of the declensions of Latin nouns 
and adjectives; for it is still everywhere professed that Latin is 
the language of botanical nomenclature. 
One mentally equipped with these simple rudiments of phyto- 
graphic knowledge sees at first glance that Mitellastra is a 
plural; that as the name of a genus it must appear as Mitel- 
lastrum. That violence to grammar which defaces the page as 
LEAFLETS, Vol. I. pp. 229-244, Sept. 24, 1906. 
