THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 31 



The American Code — Occasionally the worm turns. 

 A ^s^ood deal of fun has been poked at the "American Code," 

 but its supporters seem to find some things to say in its de- 

 fense. N. L. Britton reviewing the "Flora of the District 

 of Columbia" writes as follows : "It goes without saying that 

 the nomenclature of the District Flora follows the American 

 Code rather than the so-called International Code forced down 

 the throats of the Vienna Congress by a German majority and 

 further manipulated by the same majority at the Brussels 

 Congress. We can well understand why the French have never 

 recognized it as valid and why anybody but Germans and 

 Austrians should so regard, it has always been a puzzle, 

 especially as the American Code is much more logical and cuts 

 out autocracy. The Washington Botanists have followed the 

 American Code consistently in almost every item except the 

 duplicate binomials ; they do not say why these have not been 

 used; zoologists have used them for many years without 

 losing sleep and Sassafras Sassafras runs well with Corvus 

 Corvus. * * *It may be they are influenced by the line of 

 thought advanced by Engler at the Vienna Congress when 

 we asked him why he objected and he told us principally that 

 such names had made some of his students laugh ! And so the 

 risibility of juvenile Huns prevented their adoption at that 

 highly amusing convocation." 



