THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 137 



iinportanl \ arialidii^ slioukl haxc a nanic in order that tlicv 

 niav be conveniently designated, hut why the author citation ? 

 Does the nanier of a white huckleberry or white cardinal 

 flower fear we shall not know that it is white unless it is ac- 

 coni[)anietl h\ the name of the eniineiil de:^criher .■' In the 

 older books this is not so, for nearly everyb(^dy realizes that 

 albinos are likely iu occur occasionally in any group of li\ ing 

 things. The nonsense, moreover, does not stop here. It fre- 

 (juentK" happens at present, that if one author describe^ a 

 s])ecimen as a \ariet\', another will at once call it a form or 

 \ ice \ersa. This proceding enable the name-changer to make 

 a "new combination" and lhu> inject his own unmusical pat- 

 rominic into the citation. l)Ut who, it may i)e asked, can di>- 

 tinguish surel\- ])etween a \ariety and a form? The lines that 

 separate one specimen from another are not hard and fast- 

 There are variations of all degrees of importance, seasonal, 

 edai)hic, geographical, physiological and what not, and no- 

 bod\- can really say where one ends and the other begins, unless 

 it be the name-tinker standing too close to his cathedral. If 

 we could only get him to stand a little farther back, what an 

 immense number of trifling problems that now perplex his 



mentality wcnild automatically disappear! 



* * * 



We ha\ e receivetl notice that a third society for protect- 

 ing the wildfl(nvers has been organized. The newcomer ap- 

 pears under the joint auspices of the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society and the Garden Club of America. That we 

 can never have too many people interested in i^rotecting the 

 wildflowers is certain, but it may be questioned whether the 

 results desired could not be better attained by uniting the ef- 

 forts of all concerned into one stroni: movement. The great 



