118 TirE jomxAL of eota"N'y 



identity of the name be clear all subsequent combinations based 

 tbereon are equalh^ so. 



Mr. Spragne's suggestion 9, A, seems to me to have been well 

 modified by the later suggestion of Mr. F. N.Williams (o/j. cif. 20'y). 

 Mr. Williams urges that it is pedantic to alter the expected Latin 

 gender because of the classic exception to rule by wliich names of 

 trees became feminine. This surely involves for botanists to-day a 

 needless and profitless effort of decision ; is it not conceivable that, in 

 the face of our present use of Latin in pure science, a conclave of 

 contemporary Koman grammai'ians would be likely themselves to 

 modify, or standardize, their language? In the absence of such 

 a gathering, cannot we, as nearest representing them, do just this in 

 one trivial point of their tongue ? This would be a slight assumjjtion 

 of power compared to the sweeping revisal of the Spanish language 

 cari'ied through b}'' the Spanish Academy. 'J'he remaining pai'ts 

 of suggestion 9, as well as suggestions 10, 11, and 12, 1 fully agree to, 

 although the last two, recommending respectively the wiiting of 

 small initial letter for all species and the omission of the comma 

 between a technical name and its authority, seem to me matters in 

 which liberty may well be given individual ])reference. 



1 think that Mr. Sprague has done an excellent thing in opening 

 again the subject of nomenclature, and the editor of the Journal of 

 Bofaru/ a like service in w^elcoming a frank discussion. We must 

 come to universal agreement in this field: however much of com- 

 promise may be at last involved, such agreement presu])]wses a 

 careful analysis of methods, a profiting by the experience of either 

 school, and the joint endeavour to form a system of nomenclature 

 simple in practice and giving results accurate and stable. 



FEA^'CIS W. Pennell. 



Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 



[We have submitted these jmpei's to Mr. S])rague, and ho])e to 

 publish his comments upon them in our next issue. — Ed. Jou«n. 



BOT.] 



NEW UMBELLIFERiE FliOM TROPICAL AFRICA. 

 By Cecil Noemax. 



All the plants hereunder described were collected by John 

 Gossweiler — four in Angola in 1906-7, and one in Mayumbe, Por- 

 tuguese Congo, in 1918 — and are in the National Herbarium. 

 Portuguese West Africa seems to be rather rich in plants of this 

 order, but in many cases the material to hand does not admit of 

 satisfactory determination. 



I gladly take this o])]iortunity of expressing my grateful thanks 

 to my friend Mr. E. G. Baker for much help and advice. 



Carum angolense, sp. nov. 



Herha rigida, suffruticosa, glabra, robusta : caule In sicco canicu- 

 lato ; foUis ternatis, subsessilibus, lobis linearibus nonnunquam tri- 

 fidis 3-5;^ cm. longis, 1-2 mm. latis, acuminatis : ynihellorum radiis 

 8-12 vafde insequalibus, plerumcpie circa 3 9 cm. longis, vel rarius 



