THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 281 



This consideration indeed opens up the grand point. "Wlien a plant has been 

 named by a botanist of renown, the whole world is bound to accept tlie name giveu 

 it. Tiie world cannot do with names of plants as with metallic currencies. A 

 sovereign from the English mint pasSL'S current anywhere, according to its value ia 

 gold ; but a bronze farthing ofiered beyond the realm is scarcely convertible at its 

 reputed value, for if put in the melting pot it can but produce a worthless '' dump." 

 It should be so with names. If they are good, the world should take them ; but if 

 bad, the world has a right to refuse, and there should be an end of that courtesy 

 which botanists pay to each other in abstaining from re-naraing plants because they 

 have already been named " authoritatively." Why should a lover of plants be 

 compelled to commemorate Jenkins, or Johnson, or Jeremiah, every time he men- 

 tions soms new orchid, or palm, or pond-weed ? Let any botanist recall his early 

 days of hard study, and will he not remember how useful were good names, and 

 how worse than useless bad ones, in his efforts to make out the boundaries of genera, 

 and the distinctive characters of species ? Will not the memory bear witness against 

 the nomenclature which has neither the grapho nor the imago to vindicate it ? 

 Because it is not well to multiply names, and because synonyrats are perplexing, 

 and because any one may name a plant as he will, no new name ought to be 

 accepted en the authority of an individual, however able and eminent. The plant 

 may be better understood already elsewhere, and at all events it may have been 

 already named. Almost every plant introduced within the past fifty years has half 

 a dozen names, and the most dreadful confusion exists in some genera in which the 

 reputed species are very nearly alike. We want a revision of names of plants, and 

 this can only be done by an "assembled wisdom" of accomplished botanists, 

 agreeing first to principles, and then in the most catholic spirit seeking to apply 

 them, not for the graufication of personal whim, but for the service of mankind. 

 Names are public property ; he who purposes to invent them should first make sure 

 of his ability to construct them in such a way that they will serve their purpose. 



I propose that instead of accepting the names provided by individual botanists, 

 that such names have only a provisional value. A new plant must have a name of 

 some sort as soon as possible for purposes of identification and description. But we 

 want a perpetual Board of Botanical Nomenclature to whicli all new names should 

 be referred, and by wluch such names should be annulled or confirmed, as a mature 

 consideration of characters may require. How often are plants named before the 

 flowers or fruits have been seen ? how often are they named from dried scraps sent 

 home by travellers — nay, even from the descriptions of unpractised persons who 

 find species they suppose to be new, and wliich accordingly have new names, and 

 are afterwards found to be as old as any authentic name in the lists ? liovv the 

 Board I propose should be formed, and upon what principles it should act, I forbear 

 even to suggest. I have perhaps said enough to render the solution less difiicult, 

 at least in theory, than may at first sight appear. The botanists present have 

 their own matured opinions as to the value of descriptive names, and as to the plea 

 that may be urged in behalf of commemorative nam^s. I leave the question of 

 principle to their consideration. As for the Board, it will probably occur to most 

 of those who give the matter any consideration at all, that the great scientific schools 

 should be all represented at it, and a very large proportion of the work could be 

 carried on by correspondence, buppose the leading botanists of various countries 

 to be members of sucli a board, the scientific journals would place them en rapport 

 as to the work in progress ; their votes might be taken by the same means on 

 important questioris raised, and at stated times — say annually, bieimally, or tiien- 

 nially — congresses such as the present might be called in London, Paris, Berlin, 

 Petersburg, or even as far off as New York, and at such congresses whole batches 

 of names could be revised, and a sort of lex non scripta could be enforced for the 

 adoption of the names then and there agreed upon. 



