170 The Nomenclature of Plants. [zok 



" In view of the International Botanical Congress to be held at 

 Genoa, Italy, September 4th to nth, 1892, we, the undersigned 

 American botanists, favor the adoption of the following general 

 principles of nomenclature: 



I. The adoption of initial dates for generic and specific names. 



II. That the publication of a generic name or a binominal specific 

 name invalidates the use of the same name for any subsequently 

 published genus or species. 



III. That in the transfer of a species to a genus other than the 

 one under which it was first published, the original specific name is 

 to be preserved, unless such name has previously been employed 

 in the genus to which the species is transferred; and if the author 

 who transfers such species alters the name, it may be restored by an)- 

 subsequent author. 



IV. That a varietal name be treated as equal in rank to a spe- 

 cific name, in its relations as a homonym and in the transfer df 

 species and varieties from one genus to another. 



Frederick V. Coville, Arthur Hollick, 



B. T. Galloway, Elizabeth G. Britton, 



J. M. Holzinger, Anna Murray Vail, 



Walter H. Evans, Byron D. Halsted, 



F. H. Knovvlton, Thomas C. Porter, 



Lester F. Ward, John K. Small, 



George B. Sudworth, J. Bernard Brinton, 



N. L. Britton, Timothy F. Allen, 



Thomas Morong, H. H. Rusby. " 

 William E. Wheelock, 



To the first article in both propositions there is perhaps no serious 

 objection — if the proposers can show that such alteration of the 

 present rule offers any adequate compensation for the disturbance 

 it will entail. 



The second and third articles of the Berlin proposition merely 

 formulate the existing practice of most naturalists, but many would 

 like to amend by outlawing all such names as are founded on dis- 

 tributed sets, /. e., dating them not from such distribution, but from 

 the appearance of a diagnosis in print. 



The fourth article would be an instance of special legislation, re- 

 pugnant to the sense of justice of most botanists. There are a great 



