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are still in that condition. Now in ante-Linnaean days there were 
no true names of plants, certainly not systematic names. All 
such names may be regarded as trivial or common names, and 
at the time when Latin was generally written and largely spoken 
they were scarcely more than vernacular names. Moreover, bot- 
anists commenced describing them before they commenced nam- 
ing them, and the binominal nomenclature is a direct descendant 
of a system of describing plants. It resulted from the dropping 
more and more of the adjective terms contained in the character 
until at last the description consisted of only two names, that of 
the genus and that of the species. In later times trinominals 
came more or less into vogue, and as the science advanced it be- 
came apparent that the name had little to do with the description, 
so that although up to this day many or most specific names have 
a greater or less descriptive value, still large numbers of them pus- 
sess no such value whatever, and the combination has become 
simply a name or symbol by which the plant may be known. 
Elementary as these remarks are, it is upon such facts that is 
based the reason for fixing some specific standard for the origin of 
systematic nomenclature, and to all who clearly understand the 
fact this reason is wholly conclusive. 
Since I have commenced the study of fossil plants I have 
found the same difficulty, and although the science scarcely dates 
back of the beginning of the present century the nomenclature is 
in a condition of great confusion. M. R. Zeiller in 1877 encoun-- 
tered this difficulty and expressed himself on the subject in the 
following clear and trenchant language :* 
“The unfortunate confusion that results from these successive 
changes in the name of one and the same object has taken place 
the same and in a much greater degree in other older branches of 
natural history, and to-day the necessity for some remedy is recog- 
nized. The only equitable and rational basis that can be adopted 
is the one that was proposed in 1813 by [A. P.] De Candolle in 
his Théorie elémentaire de la botanique, in the chapter on Phy- 
tography, viz., the maintenance throughout all changes in the 
*R. Zeiller, Ingénieur en chef au corps national des mines. Explication de le 
carte geologique de la France, Tome IV., 2me Partie. Végetaux fossiles du terrain 
houiller, 1879, Pi 5: 
