THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 133 



And who can demonstrate that the interests of taxonomic 

 botany in this country have in any way been promoted by the 

 attempt to substitute a code of our own devising? Instead of 

 judging each new botanical manual on its ow'n merits, and 

 with that fine impartiality which should be the mark of fhe 

 scientific spirit, we find that the book must stand or fall ac- 

 cording to the code which it follows. We have seen a series 

 of pretentious and expensive works follow each other from 

 the press, each a duplication of the work of some contempo- 

 rary author whose chief misfortune was to have used the other 

 code ; instead of a union of forces toward the solution of our 

 urgent taxonomic problems, we have wasted our strength by 

 keeping up this division into two more or less hostile camps ; 

 and all to wdiat end ? 1/ the matter of nomenclature of such 

 superlative importance in science that it must take precedence 

 over every other consideration? Dos it matter nearly so much 

 how "logical" a code is, or by what nationality it was devised, 

 as that it was adopted by what was called together as a repre- 

 sentative body of scientists? Even in Dr. Britton's severely 

 "logical" American Code there are features that do not appeal 

 powerfully to the mind which clings to logic in all things — the 

 use of duplicate binomials for instance ; but if the use of dupli- 

 cate binomials had been decreed by a general congress, and 

 sanctioned by a general acceptance, as is the case in zoology, 

 the point would not be worth squabbling over, and we could 

 all afford to subordinate our prejudices to a whole-hearted 

 acceptance. 



But when a code is in effect rammed down our throats by 

 a self-appointed coterie w^ho have never submitted their cre- 

 ation to the approval of the whole scientific w'orld, who have 

 persisted in trying to bolster it up by a lavish expenditure of 

 sarcasm at the expense of those who have failed to conform, 

 and have thereby lost sight of that fine and courteous im- 



