erature which is readily available to most botanists. In 
many instances, however, these names have been pointed 
out in periodicals or books with a limited distribution or 
in works of a purely taxonomic nature, and so have es¬ 
caped the notice of workers in other fields of botany or 
those whose library facilities are limited. As a conse¬ 
quence the botanical layman has come to depend more 
and more on the great centers of systematic botany, not 
only for the prosecution of taxonomic and nomenclatorial 
research, but more particularly for up-to-the-minute in¬ 
formation regarding these matters. 
In May 1937, there was published under the auspices 
of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, a book by J. H. 
Holland entitled “Overseas Plant Products.” Consti¬ 
tuting as it does a dictionary of the natural products of 
vegetable origin of the Empire, with the trade and ver¬ 
nacular names and their scientific equivalents listed, this 
work will be of great service to anyone who has to do 
with economic plants or plant products. It should not 
be too much to assume that, since this volume was spon¬ 
sored by Kew, the nomenclature involved would be m 
full accordance with the revised Rules of Nomenclature, 
certainly in those cases where the correct names had al¬ 
ready been pointed out. 
It is therefore surprising and disappointing to find so 
many inaccurate names listed in the work. This failure 
on the part of one of the leading centers of taxonomic 
research to make every effort to ascertain and utilize the 
correct name by which each species should be known 
under the Rules cannot but slow up the progress which 
is being made toward the standardization of the names. 
It seems advisable for the benefit of those botanists 
who may have access to Holland’s otherwise very valu¬ 
able work, and for the sake of accuracy in possible future 
editions, to call attention to certain of the plants the 
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