702 president's address. 



It happens that all these authors described A ustralian plants, 

 so that these particular corrections by De Candolle should be 

 noted. 



It is a matter for regret that F. von Mueller was a law unto 

 himself in regard to some names. For example, European 

 practice (including Bentham in the 'Flora Australiensis') adopted 

 Muell. Arg., and Hook, f., but F. von Mueller chose to write J. 

 Muell. and J. Hook. He was not consistent, for he used Linn. f. 

 The writing of Cunn. instead of A. Cunn., is a difference from the 

 'Flora Australiensis,' and I am one of those who think that that 

 classic should be followed as closely as possible in details, for it is 

 a model of orderly arrangement. Of course I do not for a 

 moment advocate a slavish adherence to this or an}'- other work 

 in cases where the progress of botanical knowledge shows that 

 modifications and corrections are necessary. 



Mr. Daydon Jackson has a useful paper* in which (p. 82) he 

 quotes examples of vicious methods of contracting authors' names 

 which is well worthy of perusal. 



Art. xlviii. (De Candolle's 'Lois') says that it is necessary to 

 publish the name of an author of a species, etc. He further says,t 

 " The purpose of the citation of the author's name is misunder- 

 stood by some. This is merely an abridged form of a biblio- 

 graphical indication, intended to establish, without lengthy 

 research, the date which fixes the priority of a name." 



Let me quote Bentham's wordsj : — " Were everj'-one agreed as 

 to the plant to be designated by a particular name, the binomial 

 appellations devised by Linnseus would be quite sufficient in all 

 cases when a species is referred to for comparison. But it so 

 frequently happens that different authors have given the same 

 name to different plants, that the addition of a third word (the 

 abbreviated name of the author) has become indispensable in some 



* Journ. Bot. xix. 75. 'On some recent tendencies in Botanical Nomen- 

 clature.' 



t Journ. Bot. xxvi. 290. 



X Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. xvii. 190 (1879). 



