IFrom ihe Hullbtin of ihb Tokkby Hoianical C1.UU36. 397-407. 1909J 



Notes on Rosaceae — II 



Per Axel Kydberg 

 SCHIZONOTUS 



In Harms' list of Genera Conservanda, adopted by the Vienna 

 Botanical Congress, the name Sovbaria A. Br. of 1 864 is given among 

 those which should be retained, and it is preferred to the older 

 Basilima Raf. 1836 [should have been 1838] and the still older 

 ScJiizonotiis Lindl. of 1829. Usually the publication of the last- 

 named genus is accredited to Wallich's Catalogue.* This cata- 

 logue, however, was not published in the sense the word " pub- 

 lished " is usually taken, for it was merely a duplicated collector's 

 list. Besides, Schizonotus is there merely a nomcn nuduvi, i. c, 

 being accompanied neither by a description nor by a synonym 

 cited. In Lindley's Introduction to the Natural System of 1830, 

 Schizonotus is really published, as Lindley points out the charac- 

 teristic fruit of Spiraea sorbifolia and proposes the name Schizo- 

 notus on page 81, and on page 83 enumerates Schizonotus as a 

 geims recognized by him. The combination Schizonotus sorbifolius 

 was not actually published until eleven years later in the second 

 edition of Steudel's Nomenclator. 



Is there any good reason for preserving Sovbaria instead of 

 either of the two older names ? If there had been a rule providing 

 that when a subgenus, or section of a genus, is raised to generic 

 rank, then the subgeneric or sectional name should be retained, 

 Sovbaria A. Br. would have had a standing, for as a name of a sec- 

 tion of Spiraea it dates from 1825. Such a rule has been advo- 

 cated to some extent in this country, but the Vienna Rules do not 

 provide for anything like it. Sorbaria apparently was selected 

 purely arbitrarily, perhaps because it had been adopted by Focke 

 in Die Natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien. If Sorbaria had been a gen- 

 erally accepted genus, there might have been also some reason for 

 its retention, but this is not the case. Scarcely any one has used 



♦No. 703. 1829 



397 



