cook: name for the sapote 159 



The Linnaean name Achras is a direct substitute for Plumier's 

 genus Sapota. It was based by Linnaeus in his Genera Plan- 

 tarum on Phuiiier's figures of an oval-fruited form of the sapodilla. 

 The first binomial use of Achras in the first edition of the Species 

 Plantarum is also typified by a reference to Pluixiier, so that there 

 is no alternative to Achras zapota Linnaeus as the name of the 

 sapodilla. In the second edition of the Species Plantarum Lin- 

 naeus made the mistake of supposing that Plumier's oval fruit 

 was a sapote, and the erroneous synonomy of this work has misled 

 many later authors. 



The retention of Plumier's name Sapota in Miller's Gardener's 

 Dictionary (7 Ed., 1759) does not justify a revival of this name, 

 since Miller followed Plumier in basing the genus on the sapodilla, 

 tho the sapote was included as a second species. Some writers 

 might consider this a reason "for transferring the name to the 

 sapote, but if such changes in the appUcations of pre-Linnaean 

 names are to be permitted no advantage of stability is gained by 

 accepting the substitutions made by Linnaeus. Tho such cases 

 have not been the subject of direct nomenclatorial legislation, 

 they are covered by imphcation under the rule that the substitu- 

 tion of a new generic name does not change the type of a genus. 

 This seems to preclude the idea that the type can be changed in- 

 formally, merely by referring other species to the genus. In 

 other words, the use of a generic name for species that are not 

 congeneric with the original type should not be allowed to change 

 the application of the name. This is also partially recognized 

 under another rule that provides for the selection of types of 

 genera adopted from nonbinomial literature from those of the origi- 

 nal species that receive names in the first binomial publication. 

 The effect of this provision is to allow Linnaeus to change the 

 applications of names as well as to substitute new names, so that 

 all of the genera of Linnaeus' Genera Plantarum can be typified 

 from the species placed under them in the Species Plantarum. 

 But to extend this freedom to other authors who reverted, often 

 quite casually, to the pre-Linnaean generic names, is to lose the 

 practical advantages of the method of types. The recognition 

 of a pre-Linnaean genus by a post- Linnaean author, tho it may 



