302 Recent Literature. [ZOE 
principally occupied by extracts from Kuntze’s reviewers and 
his own comments on the extracts. Only these last are of much 
interest, most botanists having already read the criticisms in 
whole or in part. The notes by Kuntze thereon show a great 
deal of bitterness against unfriendly reviewers and a profusion of 
abusive epithets which by withdrawing attention from the argu- 
ment do harm instead of good. He argues throughout from a 
legal point of view, taking the position that all botanists should 
be firmly bound by the Paris Code, until that code itself shall be 
rejected or altered by a thoroughly representative congress. In 
this light his arguments are fairly consistent, but it is a fact 
which no one can deny that quite a number of influential 
botanists did not fully agree at the time with the Paris Code, and 
that the practice of many others has diverged quite widely from 
it. So far in the world’s history a law is respected in direct 
proportion to the power for its enforcement. At present this. 
power does not exist, and can only come by organization and 
the election of delegates who shall represent all botanists and be 
able to make rules acceptable to the greatest number. 
The numerous signs proposed for use in an international sys- 
tem of botany would be a tax upon memory which most botan- 
ists would find very wearisome. 
The last thirty-three pages are occupied by a ‘ Codex 
Nomenclaturze Botanicze emendatus ab. Otto Kuntze,”’ printed 
in parallel columns in German, English, and French. It is 
founded on the Paris Code, but with many alterations often to 
its improvement. A few extracts will serve to show the spirit of 
these: 
“‘ New names based on sy nonyms are sufficiently characterized 
by the synonyms ” [but in such cases the synonyms should 
always have been well characterized]. 
‘“A deviation from strict priority is necessary for genera 
published on the same day and united afterward.”’ (The genus 
first receiving species after 1753 to be valid.) 
‘The annulments and alterations of the existing laws shall 
have no retroactive force and shall be applicable only to new or 
subsequently renewed denominations after the date of the publi- | 
cation of the resolution concerned passed by the competent. 
