THE NINTH EDITION OF THE LONDON CATALOGUE 49 



because the species as first described is now considered to 

 be made up of more than one species. ' We may instance 

 such innovations as Viola ericetonun, which it is suggested 

 should occupy the place of V. canina ; of V. Mikanii, which 

 occupies the place of V. offidnalis ; of Epilobiiun adnatuin 

 and E. anagalladifolium, which occupy the places of E. 

 tetragonum and E. alpinum respectively. This appears to 

 me a retrograde movement. All our British text-books 

 and the majority of Continental floras use the well-known 

 Linnean names in the restricted sense for the species 

 in question. The earlier names of Linnaeus are also 

 adopted in the " Kew Index," which, as I think very wisely, 

 ignores these later untenable names. The " Kew Index " 

 also uses the earlier names of Carex canescens, C. leporina, 

 and C. saxatilis instead of the later ones (which are adopted 

 in the Catalogue) of C. curta, C. ovalis, and C. pulla, which 

 were given by Goodenough forty years later than Linnaeus. 

 The avowed reason for the adoption of these more recent 

 names is that they are the names which were first with 

 certainty applied to the plants in question, while as to the 

 Linnean names there exists some doubt, since various authors 

 had given different interpretations of the Linnean description. 

 To this may be opposed our practice with regard to the 

 genera. As fresh discoveries are made, and our knowledge 

 of plants increases, the definitions of the various genera are 

 altered and improved, but we do not change the name of the 

 genus for that reason. We do not cease writing " Brassica, 

 Linn.," notwithstanding the genus as now understood is 

 enormously different from what it was when Linnaeus 

 founded it. So when he described Valeriana offidnalis as a 

 species, and subsequent workers thought they discovered 

 enough difference in one of its forms to warrant describing 

 it as a new species (though the specific differences are not 

 universally accepted) under the name of V. sambucifolia (but 

 V. excelsa, Poir., Mr. Jackson says, is an older name), a 

 botanist might modify the description of Linnaeus's V. 

 offidnalis so as to correctly fit the restricted species, but he 

 has no authority to coin for the Linnean species a fresh 

 specific name, such as Valeriana Mikanii. Hypericum qtiad- 

 rangulum. Linn., of the last edition is also unnecessarily 

 I E 



