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Campanula, and Bartholini (1673), Petiver (1695), Plukenet 
_ (1696), and several other eminent authorities of the time, placed 
it in what is now known as Lysimachia, then called Nummu- 
laria,;; and with this class of botanical opinionists it stood as 
Nummularia Norvegica, the plant having been re-discovered in 
Norway, where it is abundant. 
And so the fate of being placed by some authors in one 
genus, and by others in another, which has befallen so great a 
number of generic types in later times, befell Luna, too, in its 
earlier days ; nor was Gronovius the first to found a new genus 
upon it; neither was Linnea its first proper generic name, for 
as early as the year 1728, while the boy Linnzus was in the be- 
ginning of his college course at Lund, Buxbaum, of St. Peters- 
burg, published it as a new genus under the name (not well 
formed for a generic one), Serpyllifolia. Then again, eight years 
later, Siegesbeck reasserted its generic rank, and named it, very 
appropriately, Obo/aria, and this was the year preceding the ap- 
pearance of the third generic name, Lizn@a, which now holds. 
It may be presumed that the genius of the illustrious Swede 
had recognized the fitness of the plant for a clear and strong 
generic type, and that his own good taste and rising ambition 
had combined to kindle within him a desire to have it go down 
to future ages under the name of Lizne@a, and that his friend 
Gronovius was found ready and glad to assume the office of 
sponsorship. At all events, in Linnaus’ Genera Plantarum 
(1737), the name appears, and he gives Gronovius credit for the 
authorship, although that author never otherwise published it. 
Linnzus always used almost absolute freedom with generic 
names which had been in use before him, rejecting many, and 
making new applications of many more. The first one which 
had been proposed for the genus in question he, with reason, put 
aside. The second, namely, Odo/aria, he applied to the little 
North American gentianaceous plant which still bears the name. 
With regard to the authority for the specific name, or, if you 
like, the whole binary name of this plant, our American books 
every one, in so far as I have observed, and those of many and 
distinguished European authors also, are at fault in reading as 
they do Linnea borealis, Gronovius. Gronovius named the 
