i895- NOTES AND COMMENTS. 7 



senticosa, A. DC. Without expressing any sympathy with the practice 

 of splitting a species into subspecies and then piling up an intolerable 

 number of varieties, we cannot but condemn the shortened method of 

 citation employed in the present instance, which is meaningless, as 

 well as incorrect. 



The Dispersal of Type-Specimens. 



Those zoologists and botanists who occupy themselves with the 

 determination of species must often waste wicked words on the 

 arrangement that permits the type or first described specimens of a 

 species to be far removed from the land of its origin. Thus the 

 ornithologists of Australia must voyage to Philadelphia to study the 

 birds of the famous Gould collection ; and the systematic botanists 

 of North America, when working on the flora of their own country, 

 are continually at a loss for the means of correlating the specimens 

 in its various herbaria with the descriptions of the plants sent or 

 brought to Europe by early explorers. The September number of 

 the Californian journal Erythea, in an article entitled " Professor 

 Greene's Mission in Europe," supplies a case in point. Professor 

 Greene has devoted a considerable portion of the last twenty years to 

 the elucidation of the flora of the Pacific Coast. Nuttall was 

 collecting there nearly sixty years ago, but as his descriptions 

 — like most of those published in the earlier days of systematic 

 botany — are extremely meagre, it becomes necessary to refer to 

 his types, the original set of which is at the British Museum. 

 Professor Greene is now in London busily examining these and other 

 types at the two national herbaria before proceeding to examine the — 

 at any rate, from his point of view — less important continental 

 collections. In this case, then, the chief advantage of the dispersal 

 of type-specimens is that English botanists make the acquaintance of 

 Mr. Greene. 



The Plant-Types of Linn.eus. 



To the Journal of Botany for November, Mr. C. B. Clarke 

 communicates a valuable account of the Cyperaceae contained 

 in Linnaeus' Herbarium, now the property of the Linnean Society. 

 It is often necessary to know exactly what is to be under- 

 stood by a certain Linnaean name, and to this end the plant- 

 sheets written up by Linnaeus himself are of very great service. 

 As Mr. Clarke points out, they are not, however, "types" in 

 the sense understood by most modern botanists — that is to 

 say, they are not necessarily the plants from which the description 

 was wholly prepared. The " species" of the " Species Plantarum " 

 is made up of several parts, namely (1) the citations of predecessors, 

 (2) the citations of pictures, (3) Linnaeus' own diagnosis, (4) the 

 authentic examples in his own herbarium. Of these, Mr. Clarke 



