276 Vest of Vigors’s Wren. [ ZOE 
first name reached in reading any paper has, in my opinion, unques- 
tionable priority over any succeeding one. The fact of all the names 
on a page being printed at one impression has nothing to do with 
the matter, a variable number of pages preceding and following are 
in the same case. It may, indeed, easily happen that this kind of 
question may occur in the printing of separate papers, one ending 
and the other beginning on the same page. _ If this position is cor- 
rect it is idle to quote Dumortier’s recognition of Buda instead 
of Zzssa. In this world no number of wrongs ever make a 
right, though might frequently does—for atime. The Decandollean 
law “ Art. 55, Dans le cas de réunion de deux ou plusieurs groupes 
de méme nature, le nom le plus ancien subsiste. Si les noms sont 
de méme date, !’auteur choisit,” was probably intended to apply to 
differences in time, for most botanists have, perhaps instinctively, 
recognized priority of place. 
After all these matters are pretty certain to settle themselves sat- 
isfactorily in time, and they are really of small importance as com- 
pared with studies of the organisms themselves. 
The attitude of the Torrey Bulletin towards questions of nomen- 
_clature is probably responsible for a good deal of the opposition of 
the English school, the inconsiderate zeal of proselytes having 
‘wrecked many a promising undertaking. No one likes to be 
driven, and this journal has certainly attempted.to drive. Whether 
the nomenclature of a paper was in accordance with the editor's 
views or not, has for a long time appeared to be of much greater 
importance than the amount of research shown on the number of 
new facts added to our knowledge. : 
An amusing instance of this kind of criticism was given in a no- 
tice of a paper by Dr. H. H. Behr, Prof. of Botany in the Pharma- 
ceutical College in this city, where a sneering remark was made 
about “Micrampeles, which the author calls Megarrhiza’’ —Micram- 
peles being one of the doubtful names of Rafinesque, never as yet — 
-Tecognized by any one outside of the Torrey Club. | 
AN ABNORMAL NEST OF VIGORS’S WREN. 
wes - HARRY R. TAYLOR. : 
ae While hunting near Pleasanton, in the “ balso,” 
_ tract of land covered with willows, I foundon May 13, 
a swampy — Peo 
1889, anest 
