The Genus Hicoria of Rafinesque, 



By N. L. Britton. 



"Scoria {tome7itosa, mucronata, alba, pyrifonnis, globosa, &€}) 

 Jiiglans alba L., tormentosa, mucronata, Mich., &c. The hick- 

 ory." 



This is what Mr. Rafinesque is made to say in the Medical 

 Repository, 2d hexade, Vol. v., p. 352, in the year 1808, under 

 the title " Prospectus of two intended works on North American 

 Botany." 



Those who do not regard priority of publication as the all- 

 important item in biological nomenclature will doubtless consider 

 the facts and conclusions here presented as entirely uncalled for, 

 and will object to them on the ground of unnecessary introduc- 

 tion of new binomials for very familiar plants. While regretting 

 the fact that in proposing changes of this kind it is quite impos- 

 sible to please everybody, I am also assured that a large number 

 of botanists will cordially welcome any move to restore old 

 names, inasmuch as this tends to bring nomenclature to a stable 

 basis — a result worth much momentary inconvenience. I am 

 thus encouraged in calling the attention of American botanists to 

 Rafinesque's generic name for the hickories, and am persuaded to 

 believe that the literary recognition thus awarded is only too 

 long delayed. 



The hickories are among the most characteristic elements of 

 the existing North American flora, and together form a genus as 

 marked in structure as it is in geographical distribution, being 

 entirely confined to East America, with two species occurring in 

 Mexico. For some reason the older botanists failed to recognize 

 their generic validity. They, without exception, grouped the 

 hickories with the real walnuts, regarding and describing all as 



