PR BSi dent's address. 703 



instances and advisable in most cases, to avoid uncertainty, but 

 for no other object." 



Authors of species are only quoted as a matter of convenience, 

 and not to reward authors. Hence the authors' names should be 

 very clearly indicated, contractions being avoided if possible, as 

 uncertainty in regard to a name hinders and perhaps prevents the 

 bibliographical references referred to. 



Where we use contractions we should adopt the accepted con- 

 tractions. The names of Australian botanists of this and the 

 preceding generation who have not yet attained cosmopolitan 

 renown should be quoted without abbreviation. 



One effect of recent changes of nomenclature lias been to 

 facilitate the attribution of different authors to the same specific 

 name. William Matthews* gives an extreme instance in the case 

 of Erodium moschatum, a plant familiar to us, and which is by 

 different writers attributed to L'Heritier, Alton, Willdenow, and 

 Smith. 



Berlin Rule 7 says, " The author who first named the species, 

 although in another genus, is always to be acknowledged, and his 

 name is therefore to be placed in brackets before that of the author 

 who has removed the species into another genus, thus, Pulsatilla 

 pratensis (L.), Mill. If 'an author has himself placed his specieg 

 in another genus, the bracket is omitted." 



This practice has been little followed in Europe, and not at all 

 in Australia I believe. An Australian example shows how it 

 works : — 



Damasonium australe, Salisb., in Trans. Hort. Soc. Lond. i. 268 

 (1812), in 'Flora Australiensis ' and Mueller's 'Census.' 



In ' Natiirliche Pflanzen-Familien,' Buchenau changes the name 

 into Dmnasonium. minus, (R.Br.) Buchenau, because the plant 

 was first described by R.Br, as Actinocarpus minor, R.Br., and if 

 the name of the genus is changed, the specific name of the man 

 who described the plant first should be preserved, unless there are 

 good reasons against it. 



* Journ. Bot. xvi. 260. 



