THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 23 



orthographic error" ; and the American Code (Part III Sec. I. 

 1) is equally clear : "The original orthography of names is to 

 be maintained, except in the following cases (a) Manifest 

 typographical errors may be corrected, etc. 



Since therefore the change which Rafinesque attempted to 

 make involved more than the mere correction of a printer's 

 error, it could not under either Code invalidate the earliest 

 published name and those who adhere to the American Code 

 would under their own rules have to call the species loxylon 

 pomifcniui Raf. Fortunately those of us who accept a code 

 ratified by international agreement are released from all em- 

 barrassment in the matter by the retention among the nomina 

 conservanda of Nuttall's name Madura, to which of course 

 pomifcra as the earliest published specific name ought to be 

 joined. 



It was an error on my part to ascribe the name Toxylon 

 to Sargent in such a way as to imply that he was the first to 

 invent the word, althought he was ciudoubtedly the first author 

 to use it in a valid way in combination. Dr. Everard is 

 equally wrong in asserting that Rafinesque applied the term 

 Toxylon to the genus in 1817. The honors are therefore 

 even and each of us is able to retire from the field without 

 having fatally damaged the other's reputation — which is 

 hardly to be regarded as the chief end of scientific controversy 

 at any time. 



