217 
name of the plant. Tournefort in 1700 pronounced it the type 
of a new genus, taking up this Ceylonese name ; and so the genus 
should be credited to him. Linné, who now and then seemed 
affected by a singular blindness to generic characters in plants, 
nained it Nymphaea Nelumbo, and made our fine American 
species a mere variety of it. 
It is to be noted, finally, that among post-Linnezan authors 
of the last century, not only Adanson, but also the illustrious 
Joseph Geertner (1788), insisted upon the validity of the genus, 
and upon Nelumbo as its rightful name. 
NEMACAULIS DENUDATA, Nuttall, in Journ. Acad. Philad., 
ser. 2, i., 168 (1848). 
Nemacaulis Nuttallii, Benth., in DC. Prodr., xiv., 23 (1856); 
_ Torr. and Gray, in Proc. Am. Acad., viii. 146 (1870); Watson, 
Bot. Cal., ii., 16 (1880). 
Eriogonum denudatum, Curran, in Bull. Cal. Acad., 15 274 
(1885). : 
From a rather superficial examination of the specimens which 
have induced the proposition made by Mrs. Curran, I am dis- 
posed to think well of it, and that so, the name which I have 
placed as the latest synonym may perhaps worthily supersede 
the others. But I also perceive that the alternative course of 
adding a species or two to Nemacaulis and retaining it as a 
genus, might possibly be found the better way. However, the 
above ordering of names best exhibits how a consensus of au- 
thors may deal with the rights and prerogatives of another, 
through a long series of years. 
Nuttall, one of the most laborious and successful men who 
ever worked for thirty-four years in the field of North American 
botany, discovered the plants and founded the genus Nemacaults, 
deeming the species two, and naming them respectively J. 
denudata and N. foliosa. When, a few years afterwards, it fell 
in Mr. Bentham’s way to take up the genus, he seemed to find 
that the species was but one. Then, instead of following the or- 
dinary practice of authors in such cases, and leaving the descrip- 
tive and quite unobjectionable N. denudata, Nutt., in its place, 
writing WV. foliosa as a synonym, he displaced both the names of 
Nuttall and made himself the author of the species by writing 
