172 A I^ote on Nomenclature . [zoe 



dealing with matters not sufficiently understood. The classification 

 of plants is in that work spread out in tabular form over two great 

 folio pages ; in these two pages there are under the mark ' ' f Nova 

 genera a me constituta " twenty-five genera \tithout any mark or 

 reference or means of diagnosis other than that afforded by "Tri- 

 andra monogynia," etc., and ten times as many with no mark 

 whatever beyond the bare word. 



A second of his amusing " pronouncements " is the following: 

 " Watsonavira has few if any chances of perpetuity, the genus of 

 palms, Serenoa, apparently precluding it ; for never yet has it been 

 admitted that two generic names may stand in honor of the same 

 man." We commend these remarks to our friends the mycologists 

 in the light of, say " Saccardia," " Saccardinula," " Saccardoella," 

 etc. Perhaps when Professor Greene and his vagaries have been 

 forgotten some botanist, equally desirous of notoriety, may be en- 

 abled to coin a generic name or two by discovering that " Greenel- 

 la " and " Greenina " are merely synonyms of " Chlora " and 

 "Chloraa." 



A NOTE ON NOMENCLATURE.* 



BY ALPHONSE DECANDOLLE. 



Many botanists are alarmed by the changes in the generic names 

 of plants proposed by Kuntze. But the researches which have been 

 made, and the opinions which are daily published on the subject of 

 nomenclature, may, however, give some reassurance. 



I have had the curiosity to ascertain what generic names Kuntze 

 claims should be changed in the twenty-six families which I have 

 been studying, either for the Prodromus or the first volume of our 

 Monographiae, and their number is twenty-eight. Now, after an 

 attentive consideration of the reasons given by Kuntze, only six 

 names are found which require to be changed by the application of 

 the w^ell-known law of priority, while twenty-two of the changes are 

 inadmissible. 



Dr. Briquet, who is better acquainted with the family of the 

 Labiates than any other person, has found that of the fifteen changes 

 proposed by Kuntze, only five are justifiable, while ten are not ad- 

 missible. 



* Translated for Zoe from Journal of Botany, May, 1892, by C. C. P. 



