456 Transactions. 



Banksia without a name, he resolves to provide it with one 

 which will commemorate the late Baron Mueller's services to 

 Australian botany. He cannot do this in the usual manner, 

 as there is already a genus Muellera ; but he gets over the diffi- 

 culty by coining the new generic term Sirmudlera ! In a 

 similar way, Sir J. D. Hooker's connection with Indian botany 

 is to be recognised by applying the name Sirhookera to a genus 

 of orchids. Perhaps a more remarkable degree of ingenuity 

 is shown by the invention of a whole series of names such as 

 Watsonamra, Kinginda, Ernstafra, Itoasia, &c, all coined in 

 honour of workers in botanical science. The addition " amra " 

 implies that the prefixed author was mostly concerned with 

 American botany ; " inda " that his chief work was connected 

 with India ; " afra " with Africa ; " asia " with the Continent 

 of Asia ; and so on. 



It is difficult in a short sketch like the above to give a proper 

 idea of the revolutionary changes proposed by Dr. Kuntze, 

 and of the disturbing effect which their publication produced 

 in the botanical world. It is true that, with the exception of 

 a number of American botanists, some of whom have shown 

 a disposition to go to greater lengths than Kuntze himself, 

 hardly any workers in botanical science have accepted the 

 conclusions arrived at in the " Revis'o," and that very few of 

 the generic or specific names proposed therein have passed 

 into general use. At the same time, it is an undeniable fact 

 that if the law of priority is to be rigidly enforced, then many 

 of Kuntze's changes must be accepted, to the great detriment 

 of botanical science. Under such circumstances, it is not sur- 

 prising that a widespread feeling arose in favour of an agreement 

 amongst botanists generally under which stability of nomen- 

 clature could be secured without revolutionary changes of 

 such a sweeping character as to make the botanical literature 

 of the past almost unintelligible to the workers of the future. 

 The first practical step in this direction was taken in 1892, 

 when a number of German botanists, under the Leadership of 

 Professor Engler, issued an important memorandum, recom- 

 mending that the date of the publication of the " Species 

 Plantarum " (1753) should be taken as the starting-point of 

 botanical nomenclature, and suggesting a list of generic names 

 to be retained which under the strict application of the law 

 of priority, must otherwise be changed. Later in the same year, 

 at a congress held at Genoa, a commission of thirty members 

 was appointed to consider the question in all its hearings. The 

 report of this commission, framed by Drs. Aschcison and 

 Engler, did not appear until the commencement of 1895. It 

 suggested the date of 1753 as a starting-point for both genera 



