THE AMERICAN BOTANIST, 19 



be expected in subscription lists. It is probably unneces- 

 sary to add that we shall try to justify this kind of en- 

 couragement. 



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It is pleasing to note the increasing number of botan- 

 ists who decline to upset well established plant names in 

 deference to the much lauded rule of priority. Thus Dr. 

 Grout in his recenth^ issued "Mosses with Hand-lens and 

 Microscope" says, "The principle of priority has been al- 

 lowed great weight, but usage also has its claims and a 

 name long in common use has not been discarded unless 

 convenience and clearness seemed to demand it," and in 

 the "Algae of Northwestern America" by Professors Set- 

 chell and Gardner the authors hold that "A name which 

 has been recognized for a quarter of a century or there- 

 abouts is to be considered fixed and not to be unsettled 

 simply because another may have been proposed earlier, 

 but hitherto neglected for good or even for no real rea- 

 sons." The strong common sense in such utterances will 

 commend itself to all botanists who have the good of the 

 science at heart, though the changing of names will pro- 

 bably continue to appeal to a certain class who have all 

 to gain (in the matter of personal prominence) and nothing 



to lose, by such word tinkering. 



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* 



Botany does not consist entirely of dry facts as some 

 novices seem to think. There is considerable fun to be got 

 out of it if one only knows how, as may be shown by the 

 new and highly diverting pastime that has originated in 

 connection with the genus Craticgus, In any other genus 

 one would not think of founding species upon such trivial- 

 ities as the color of the anthers or minor differences in the 

 pubescence or rotundity of the fruit, but assuming that 

 these individual peculiarities are of specific importance, it 

 gives a waggish species-maker a chance to tickle the van- 

 ity of every acquaintance who ever cut a shillalah from a 

 hawthorn thicket by naming a species after him. As soon 

 as the news goes out that the hawthorns of any particular 



