1918] Blake,— Note on the proper Name for the Sassafras 99 
variifolium (Salisb.) Ktze. Rev. i. 574 (1891), now used by those who 
follow the Vienna Rules and reject the tautonym Sassafras Sassafras 
(L.) Karst. Deutsch. Fl. 505 (1880-83), must accordingly be dropped. 
The valid name to replace it is SASSAFRAS OFFICINALE Nees & Eberm. 
Handb. Med.-Pharm. Bot. ii. 418 (1831), a name given when the 
species was transferred from Laurus to Sassafras. It should be men- 
tioned, in explanation of the use of S. variifolium (Salisb.) Ktze. in the 
seventh edition of Gray’s Manual (1908), that at the time the Manual 
was prepared the status of the class of names known as nomina abor- 
tiva was still under discussion and no legislation regarding them had 
been incorporated in the International Code. 
The subglabrous and more or less glaucous variety, recently dis- 
cussed by Prof. Fernald in Ruopora, should be called 
SASSAFRAS OFFICINALE Nees & Eberm. var. albidum (Nutt.) comb. 
nov.— Laurus (Euosmus) albida Nutt. Gen. i. 259 (1818). Sassafras 
variifolium (Salisb.) Ktze. var. albidum (Nutt.) Fernald, RHODORA xv. 
16 (1913), q. v. for full synonymy. 
Mention should be made of an earlier and (by International Rules) 
untenable use of the name Sassafras officinalis by Siebold in 1830. It 
occurs in his synopsis of the economic plants of Japan (Verh. Batav. 
Genootsch. xii. 23 (1830)), as follows. 
“ Sassafras, Sieb. 
“ S. officinalis, Sieb. Siromotsi, Japon. (v. v. h. b.). 
“Sijnon: Laurus Sassafras P. S.... 
“S. Thunbergii, Sieb. Kuromotsi, Japon. (v. v. h. b.). 
“ Sijnon: Lindera umbellata, Th... .”’ 
As Siebold’s use of the name Sassafras, although apparently the 
earliest in postlinnaean times, is unaccompanied by diagnosis or refer- 
ence to an earlier generic name, it is not valid according to the Inter- 
national Rules. His name S. officinalis, although based on Laurus 
Sassafras P(ers.) S(yn. i. 450 (1805)), must consequently be dis- 
regarded. The plant really intended by Siebold is of course not our 
Sassafras, which does not grow in Japan, but is, according to the 
Index Kewensis, Lindera triloba Blume, while his S. Thunbergi is 
Lindera umbellata Thunb.— S. F. Braxe, Gray Herbarium. 
