328 
Census of Australian Plants,” published in the year of grace 
1890 ; and it has been my fortune to meet during the past sum- 
mer a scholar who must be freely accorded the distinction of being 
quite as shrewd in perception and as accurate in judgment as any 
who have preceded him, who holds to the same opinions. 
I am led to write this, because Professor Greene has thought 
it desirable to disclaim the origination of the views he advocates 
and to refer to what we have had so recently and satisfactorily 
defined as “authority.” 
I will first consider his criticisms on my remarks. He takes 
exception to my statement that ‘Generic names used by pre- 
Linnean authors and adopted by Linnzus are credited to the old 
writers even as far back as Dioscorides and Pliny,” saying that it 
is true only under important limitations, and showing that he has 
adopted only those which have been satisfactorily identified. By 
this I understand him to imply those which he considers to have 
been satisfactorily identified. Thus he attributes Cerczs to Lin- 
nzeus because “the most eminent critics of ancient botany failed 
to identify Kerkzs,” and again, ‘‘ Lotus is credited to Tournefort 
because the ancients had several Loti.’””’ And yet my sentence is 
I think actually true, for I did not say, nor intend to say, that 
“ All generic names used by pre-Linnzan authors and adopted ;” 
etc. But we will not quibble over a word. I might better have 
said, ‘many generic names, etc.,” and will credit him with a 
point of vantage. 
But I think that he has here touched on a very weak place 
in his armament, and one that I did not allude to in my review 
because | realized that I was approaching dangerous ground, and 
recognized the necessity of keeping some things in reserve. The 
point that I would make is the undisputed uncertainty of identi- 
fication of a very large number of ancient names. Not all ancient 
names, but a great many. There is no preservation of the plants 
of Dioscorides, Theophrastus or Pliny. Some of them can be 
known from description, some from ancient engravings, some of 
them can not be known at all, and between the knowable and the 
unknowable there is a hazy region which each critical student 
will interpret differently. Now how in the world are we to at- 
tain stability under the system advocated by Prof. Greene, while 
