SOME REMATIKS OX XO:srEXCLlTURE 201 



name-chan2:es, but would tend to fixity and be simple to work. I do 

 not think all systematists realise how many names now in use are 

 invalid if the retro-active principle is strictly employed. Accumulation 

 of evidence as to the amount of change this proposition would cause 

 would be useful, as the greater simplification would be a great 

 advantage. 



(7) Citation of misidentifications. There is no trouble if the type- 

 method is used, as the original author of the name and type will be 

 cited — within parentheses, if he did not make the combination. To say 

 Mcerun nervosa Oliver, "as to name only," is not a way out of the 

 difficulty. Nomenclature (names) and plants (descriptions) cannot 

 be completely separated. A "new combination" is necessary in such 

 cases, see thrincia taraxacoides, and Diffifaria Isclicemum above, 

 but I would prefer to cite merely the original author of the name, 

 whom examples such as these show to be the o^eal arbiter accepted 

 bv all workers. 



(8) I agree, e.g., Gory (led is Medik. and CorydaJis DC. are two 

 distinct genera. Both cannot be utique conservanda. 



Sciiinz and Thellung seem to take the position that the Vienna 

 Code is as a law of the Medes and Persians. By Art. 3 this is a 

 reductio ad alsurdum. Those who are anxious to have an accepted 

 International Code should consider Art. 3 and be prepared to reject 

 anvthing which does not seem essential to the progress of the science. 

 But progress necessitates change, and the sooner a necessary change is 

 made the less disturbance is created. To regard the Code as final 

 must involve its death. 



A SPINELESS VARIETY OF GENISTA ANGLICA L. 

 By H. W. Pfgslet, B.A., F.L.S. 



WiiEX botanizing on the heathland at Boat of Garten, Inverness- 

 shire, in the summer of 1916, I collected specimens of a form of 

 Genista anglica which attracted m}^ attention b}^ its uniformly 

 prostrate habit and almost spineless stems. In July of last year 

 I met with the same form about a mile below the hotel in the 

 Clova Valley, Forfarshire, Avhei-e I saw many plants of it traihng 

 among the dwarf heather on the banks and braes, and presenting a 

 totally different aspect from the normal species. 



The peculiarities of this prostrate form will perhaps be best 

 indicated by first recalling some of the characteristic features of the 

 typical plant. The stems of ordinary G. anglica are usually more or 

 less erect, branching freely above and forming a dwarf bush. Each 

 growing branch bears numerous alternate, oblong or lanceolate leaves, 

 in the axils of which, except the lowest or occasionally all on very 

 weak branches, are spreading, slender but sharp spines, 5-25 mm. long 

 (generally equalling or exceeding the leaves), each clothed with 

 several narrow leafy bracts, or rarely one or two smaller secondary 

 spines below. Between the base of the spine and its supporting leaf 



