454 Transactions. 



names, it is hard to imagine what arguments can be advanced 

 in favour of the proposal, while it is easy to see the many in- 

 conveniences which would result. And, if it be allowable to go 

 back to the times of Ray and Gerard, there is no logical reason 

 to prevent authors from making still more extensive excursions 

 into the realms of antiquity, and quoting as authorities Virgil, 

 Pliny, or Aristotle . 



The foregoing remarks will give a general idea of the many 

 difficulties which surround the question of botanical nomen- 

 clature. Before proceeding further, it is perhaps advisable 

 to say a few words about the work of the late Otto Kuntze as 

 a " reformer " in nomenclature, more especially as his publi- 

 cations, and the extraordinary number of changes proposed 

 therein, constituted one of the chief reasons for summoning 

 the Vienna Congress. His principal work is the " Revisio 

 Genera Plantarum," the three volumes of which were published 

 at intervals between the years 1891 and 1898. Although fully 

 aware that botanical nomenclature, as devised by Linnaeus, 

 was not matured until the appearance of the " Species Plan- 

 tarum " in 1753, he nevertheless takes as his starting-point 

 the date of the publication of the first edition of the 

 " Systema Naturae " in 1735. This being settled, he next 

 proceeds to give every publication that appeared after 1735 

 an equal value for the purposes of botanical nomenclature, 

 and to rigidly enforce the application of the law of priority. 

 Previous workers, as a rule, only concerned themselves with 

 nomenclature when monographing a particular genus or family ; 

 with them, at any rate, it occupied a secondary position. But 

 Dr. Kuntze boldly placed it in the forefront ; and, at a vast 

 expenditure of time and labour, instituted a systematic search 

 through the whole of the botanical literature of the latter half 

 of the eighteenth century, apparently for the express purpose 

 of hunting out generic names of prior date to those commonly 

 accepted. It is best to take his own statement as to the results 

 of that portion of his work included in the first two volumes 

 of the " Revisio." He says that he has monographed 109 

 genera ; sunk 151 genera ; renamed 122 genera, because they 

 bore names identical with or similar to those of older genera ; 

 changed the names of 952 genera to older names, under the 

 operation of the law of priority; and, finally, as the result of the 

 above changes in generic names, has renamed more than 30,000 

 species. Sweeping changes of this character sap the very founda- 

 tions of botanical nomenclature, and threaten to plunge it into a 

 confusion tenfold greater than that from which it was rescued by 

 Linnaeus. Let us briefly examine some of the alterations in well- 

 known and long-established names which we are asked to accept. 



