JONATHAN STOKES AND HIS COMMENTARIES 305 



the "Advertisement" to the second edition of Withering. In 

 this (1787) he pointed out " the mischief of arbitrarily changing " 

 specific names, but he now follows the line taken by Salisbury 

 in his Prodromus (1796), considering that "where a name is 

 susceptible of amendment every botanist should be as ready to 

 suggest a better as to communicate an improved specific character 

 or description," although he does not " approve of altering every 

 name which is not good, considering it better to use the bad one 

 till we discover one which is characteristic." As examples of the 

 changes may be noted Circcea lutetiana and G. al^iina, which he 

 names respectively C. ovatifolia and C. cordifolia ; Veronica 

 Chamcedrys becomes V. biharhata ; Pinguicula vulgaris and P. 

 lusitanica are changed to P. ovata and P. suhcequalis. 



The preface is followed by " an explanation of botanical terms," 

 covering eighty pages, and the notes connected with the definition 

 of each term show by their copious references to books and figures, 

 as well as to plants which illustrate the terms and to his owui 

 "observations," the painstaking industry which is manifest in all 

 Stokes's work. The notes are often very full — those on "corolla" 

 and " perispermum " may be cited as examples — and deal inci- 

 dentally with other than botanical matters. This is succeeded by 

 what is perhaps the most interesting feature of the volume — 

 twenty-one pages of " Abbreviations explained ; many of gardens 

 and persons, and titles of books not enumerated in the second 

 edition of the Botanical Arrangement and the Botanical Materia 

 Medica." The information as to " gardens and persons " con- 

 tains so much matter of interest that copious extracts will follow 

 at the conclusion of this paper. The prefatory matter concludes 

 with a translation of the elder Von Schlechtendal's preface (dated 

 1812) to the Supplement to Willdenow's Enumeratio. 



The body of the work consists of very full descriptions of the 

 genera and species of the Linnean classes Monandria and Diandria 

 with Monogynia Triandria; the genera are briefly diagnosed in 

 Latin, with English translation ; and the species are similarly 

 characterized; the English descriptions are very full, in accordance 

 with the views expressed by the author in his preface. The 

 treatment of Crocus and Iris is very elaborate, and should not be 

 overlooked by workers on these genera. The bibliography, both of 

 genera and species, is also very full ; the synonymy of the latter 

 includes pre-Linnean nomenclature. The material from which each 

 species is described, whether living or dried, is almost always in- 

 dicated : from these indications we glean something as to Stokes's 

 peregrinations ; he speaks of having gathered wild plants in various 

 localities in Derbyshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire, as 

 well as at Cologne, and in gardens in various parts of England, 

 as also at Paris (Trianon), Leyden, Utrecht, and Vienna. His 

 Indian plants are mainly described from Koxburgh's specimens 

 sent him by Wright, who also sent him Jamaican plants from 

 Broughton ; other descriptions are based on specimens from 

 Jaequin, Leske, Boehmer, Bartram, Broussonet, L'Heritier, Vahl, 

 and Solander. Other main sources of Stokes's material will be 



