378 Systematic Botany. [ZOE 
ness which it now sadly lacks, and an impetus which would 
result in the speedy settlement of the classification of our flora. 
_ The most crying need of to-day is a rule that no species shall 
be considered as published if it has a string of words attached to 
it which do not describe the species so that it can be recognized 
without the use of the type specimen. It is true that this would 
invalidate the names of almost half of our flora if it were made 
an ex post facto rule, but we need not do that; we can forgive the 
good old men who have passed away, but we should expect 
better things of the living. Among the faults in describing 
species there is no one more common than sawing the air with 
descriptions. Take Astragalus for example, allied species, one is 
described as ‘‘ matted, pod inflated, flowers white, calyx long, 
stipules connate, leaflets 10-15 pairs.” Another is described 
as ‘‘stems many; pod hoary, 2-celled, pointed; flowers large, 
keel blunt; calyx hyaline with teeth as long as tube; stipules 
lanceolate and acute; leaflets glabrous, obovate, acute.’’ The 
person who makes such a description which would apply equally. 
to either species thinks he has described his plant, when in fact it 
is only an aggregation of words with no meaning. If a person 
does the best he knows how he is then liable to miss some things 
of importance, but when he starts out to give a ‘‘ short and 
concise” description and throws in a pinch of words and calls it 
a description, he feels aggrieved if he is called to account, and 
tries to insinuate that his critic has some personal motive for his 
‘‘unjust attack!’”” When all the species are known it is 
perfectly right to omit all things of no importance, but when 
they are not all known and their importance misunderstood 
there is no botanist either with inherited or acquired acumen 
who can tell what are essential and what non-essential char- 
acters, and it is pure pedantry to assume it. 
Another innovation in nomenclature which I think should 
not be overlooked is the crediting of species to men who were 
not their authors. I do not know who first promulgated it, but 
it is in the line so much cultivated of late, of ignoring and under- 
estimating the work of field botanists. One would think the way 
things are going that the only persons who have any rights are 
the people who sit in their warm and cozy herbaria and manu- 
