460 Transactions. 



starting from 1753, the rules provide a list of names which must 

 be retained in all cases. These names are by preference those 

 which have come into general use in the fifty years following 

 their publication, or which have been used in monographs and 

 important floristic (floristiques) works up to the year 1890. 

 The list of these names forms an appendix to the rules of nomen- 

 clature." 



I regard Rules 19 and 20 as the most important passed by 

 the Congress, inasmuch as they will sweep out of existence many 

 of the forgotten and useless names revived by Kuntze and 

 similar writers. The list contains the names of 408 genera, 

 containing many thousands of species. It is no light service 

 to botanical nomenclature to preserve these names unaltered, 

 and to obviate the worse than useless confusion which would 

 have been caused by their change. I only regret that the list 

 has not been made more extensive. For instance, Nasturtium 

 might well have been included, seeing ' that some botanists 

 propose to supplant it by the older but almost unknown name 

 of Radicula. However, taking the list as it stands, New Zea- 

 land botanists will be glad to know that it preserves from altera- 

 tion the names of thirty-one genera of New Zealand plants 

 and of seventy-five species. We shall not be compelled to call 

 Astelia by the name of Funckia, or to change Cordyline to Termi- 

 nalis, or Luzula to Juncodes, &c. No doubt the setting-up 

 of a list of plants not subject to the law of priority is an 

 arbitrary measure ; but then desperate diseases require vigorous 

 remedies, and there is practically no other plan of preventing 

 an entirely disproportionate or even overwhelming amount of 

 change in botanical nomenclature. 



Articles 24 and 25, dealing with the names of genera, are 

 well worth attention. Clause (d) of Recommendation 4, sub- 

 joined to the rule, provides that generic names may be accom- 

 panied by a prefix or suffix, or may be modified by anagram or 

 abbreviation, and in such cases count as different words. I 

 mention this because the late Dr. Kuntze contended that all 

 such names should be treated as synonyms, and only the oldest 

 retained. Under the above recommendation both Durvillea 

 and Urvillea, Chloris and CMorcea, Glaux and Glaucium, are 

 valid, and will be allowed to stand. 



Article 26. — Recommendation 10 : This is to the effect 

 that specific names begin with a small letter, except in the case 

 of those taken from the names of persons, or from generic names, 

 as Phyteuma Halleri, Lythrum Hyssopifolia. My reason for 

 drawing attention to this is that all previous editors of the 

 " Transactions of the New Zealand Institute " have insisted 

 on treating botanical names in the same manner as zoological. 



