president's address. 699 



The name given in italics should, according to Art. 50, be 

 written " Eucalyptus viminalis, LabilL, var. pedicellai'is, Deane 

 and Maiden ex F.v.M. mss. in herb. Melb.," which would of 

 course be contracted in practice, the var. pedicellarls being attri- 

 buted to Deane and Maiden instead of to Mueller, who originally 

 discriminated it. Both methods are open to objection, but 

 inasmuch as the original user of a name may have deliberately 

 suppressed it, it may be an injustice to him to revive it. On the 

 other hand, his omission to revive the name ma}'' be a mere over- 

 sight, in which case it is an injustice to him to omit to credit him 

 with it. This, however, trenches on the question as whether an 

 author's name should be used at all, which T have discussed at 

 p. 703. 



To show that there is a difference of opinion amongst eminent 

 botanists in regard to dealing with herbarium names, I need only 

 quote the following : — 



*' The distribution of named specimens (and, aj'ortiori, of those 

 in sets, widely distributed in herbaria, as were Sieber's), where 

 and as far as they go, is held to be tantamount to publication." 



*' So of names and original observations attached to specimens 

 in herbaria. These names are always attached antecedently to 

 publications, and a monographer, having, as he should, free access 

 to all herbaria within his reach, might work a deal of harm if he 

 did not regard such names as to him all the same as if already 

 published."* 



I am afraid that if Sieber's names were suppressed, or even if 

 the authority for the species names were altered from " Sieber " 

 to " Bentham," etc., no advantage to botanical science would 

 result, but much incon\'enience and uncertainty might arise. The 

 name of another Australian collector, Allan Cunningham, will 

 occur in this connection. Some well known plants which bear his 

 name were never described by him at all, but as he recognised the 

 species as new and even named them, Schauer and others wrote 



* Asa Gray in Silliman's Journal, March, 1864, p. 279, quoted in Journ. 

 Bot. V. 83. 



