VOL. IV,] Botanical Nomenclature, 183 



the interest felt in the science by the large body of botanists, 

 who not being in command of extensive libraries find themselves 

 unable to judge between the conflicting claims of the various 

 new names, with which those familiar to them are to be sup- 

 planted. 



The rigid law of priority, judging by what its attempted 

 enforcement has produced, is not competent to give us a stable 

 nomenclature. There are too many cases which under such a 

 rule must always remain in doubt, and it is further complicated 

 by questions of suflSciency of publication, and the right to 

 amend names which open vistas of perpetual argument. It 

 must be apparent too that the claim of strict justice which is 

 supposed to underlie the law of priority is a delusion. It puts 

 the work of the most ignorant and incompetent on a level with 

 that of the greatest scientest, offering a direct premium for 

 hasty and inconsiderate work, and yet no permanent advantage 

 can accrue to the vain glory of anyone, for it is only a question 

 of time and settled nomenclature when author-citation will be 

 discontinued in systematic, as it now is in popular and semi- 

 scientific work. 



It would seem that there should be some limit to the raking 

 up of obscure and forgotten species and genera, especially as they 

 were in the great majority of cases neglected for good reason, 

 and have in many instances become recognizable only by the 

 advance of knowledge or by a process of exclusion. A law of 

 limitation has been found necessary in the property affairs of 

 mankind, and such a law with a period of — say fifty years — 

 might give us relief from that class of "scientists" whose 

 researches into the mysteries of nature consist in trying to find 

 ■ out what our predecessors knew, instead of doing their little best 

 to add to the world's knowledge. 



A tendency to legislate for one's neighbors is usually found 

 in indirect ratio to fitness for such an office. No code of laws 

 yet exists which is able to provide for all occasions, and the more 

 minutely rules are drawn, the greater is the list of exceptions. 

 The citing of publications, for instance, may safely be left to the 

 example of those who remember in their works, that the saving 

 of labor to others is the object of citation, and the question of the 



