.ON THE DISTINCTION OF SPECIES. 615 
doubt, with those who are at all accustomed to estimate the 
minds and motives of others, that the first introduction of 
many unreal species into books, and often too their subsequent 
retention there, are sacrifices of scientific truth, to the vanity . 
of those botanists who are ambitious of appearing as disco- 
verers of something that was previously unknown, or as 
elucidators of something that was previously obscure. 
The custom of joining the name of the botanist, who first 
describes a new species, as an authority for the name he 
gives to the species, is good and proper enough in itself. But 
there is a highly unfortunate extension of the good practice, 
in doing the like with the names of those after-botanists, 
who only change the names of known plants. By their sub- 
sequent change of name, the original describer is robbed of 
that historical record which formed the honorary reward 
of his industry and knowledge; while the mere inventor of 
the new name becomes, in appearance, the authority for the 
species also. Those who can discover nothing themselves, 
or who can get no novelty to describe, are, at any rate, able 
to divide and re-name the genera or species already well- 
known ; and by so doing, they can acquire a sort of spurious 
claim to put the abbreviation of their own names along with 
those of the re-named plants. Hence come the rapid in- 
crease of false species, and the confusing subdivisions of 
well-defined and long-recognized genera. 'lhe work, above 
mentioned, affords striking examples of this evil, in record- 
ing the invention of several pretended species of Poa, and 
the uncalled.for change of name in familiar species of 
Bromus, which are. converted into species of Serrafalcus. I 
much regret to see Mr. Babington thus give sanction and 
circulation to these trifling vanities: the changes are not his 
Own, except by adoption. 
This short digression is not out of place here. It might, 
perhaps with advantage, have been eontinued farther. The 
confusion which ensues from allowing the determination 
of species to rest on individual vanity, instead of being con- 
fined by practical rules, is an evil that is yearly increasing, 
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