126 Alfred J. Eivart : 



Until the Congress if; a thoroughly representative one, it must 

 remain a purely voluntaiy matter with each botanist as to 

 whether he follows its rules or not, and the power of the Con- 

 gress to enforce its rules will depend solely upon the number 

 of botanists who elect to follow them. Under these circumstances 

 I must take strong exception to Art. 36, and, by disobeying 

 it, adopt the best plan to have it rescinded or altered. 



Art. 36 reads : " On and after Jamuary l«t, 1908, the publica- 

 tion of names of new groups will be valid only when they are 

 accomjoanied by a Latin diagnosis."' In Art. 13 a group i-s 

 defined as including a species. Any practice which tends to 

 render a science luinecessarily inaccessible to the general public is 

 bad in principle, and ultimately reacts injuriously upon the 

 science in question, and upon the eclectic few connected with it. 

 Latin is thoroughly discredited as a scientific language, and in 

 re-adopting it systematists are taking a step back to the middle 

 ages. If the rule had been to the effect that diagnoses not ^vrit- 

 ten in Engli^^h, French, or German, or unaccompanied by diag- 

 nostic figures must be written in Latin, less exception could have 

 been taken to it, although it would have been more satisfactory 

 to state that diagnoses not accompanied by analytic figures, 

 must be written in English, French or German. A good diag- 

 nostic figure is worth a dozen pages of the average systematist's 

 dog Latin, which at its best would hardly satisfy even Tacitus, 

 and at its worst is sufiicient to make Cicero turn in his grave. 



To describe plants both in the author's language and in Latin 

 would be to unnecessarily increase the already enormous bulk 

 of systematic literature, and to swell its pouring torrent to a 

 permanent flood level. To avoid this, and as a protest against 

 the rule, the plants, in the present and subsequent papers, will 

 be given, as hitherto, with diagnoses in Englisli, and if neces- 

 sary with explanatory figures. Any Latinist who would like to 

 see his initials after a plant name is at liberty to acquire this 

 right by publishing a translation in Latin of the plant diagnosis 

 here given, and thus following the rule laid down by the last 

 Congi'css. I shall make no complaint, and am willing to take 

 this risk in order to get an absurd law altered. 



It is a pity the rules were not submitted to some well-known 

 authority on jurisprudence before publication. Thus the oniis- 



