" EMEXDATIOX " OF LTNNEAN PLANT-NAAIES 153 



There is yet another objection against such corrections : namely, 

 that " a man should not be made to say what he has not said." 

 Linnjeus Avrote Erigeron acre and Tragopogon pratense ; ignoring 

 (whether by accident or design) the fact that these generic names 

 were masculine m Greek, as well as in Pliny's Latin. To write 

 " Erigeron ncer L." and " Tragopogon pratensis L." is, I submit, 

 both a mis-statement of fact and a piece of pedantry. 



Even good classical- scholars, like other people, sometimes blunder, 

 as in the case of Hieracium candelahrce (for candelabri). But I 

 think that such slips are better left uncorrected ; and that Ranun- 

 culus acris L. should be allowed to pass, rather than follow " purists," 

 and write R. acer. Nor are the supposed improvements by any means 

 always really such. Lange states that ''^ Polggala is neuter" (Haandb. 

 ])anske Flora, p. 707), on the analog}^ of yiAn ; but the Greek name 

 was TTuKvyaXur, and Pliny made his PoJygala female. 



According to Andrews, Pliny used Orchis, masculine, for a 

 globular, scaleless fish ; and, feminine, for a plant. Hei'e, qvxite 

 soundly, Linmeus followed him as regards the latter. 



Ilouy's Flore de France, though extremely useful, abounds in 

 eccentricities, and is an exasperating work, not least because of its 

 many needless changes of names. Mr. W. H. Beeby shewed sound 

 common-sense wdien he wrote to me, about thirty years ago, that he 

 had decided to adopt the author's spelling, even in such extreme cases 

 as that of Juncus lanipocarpus Ehrhart. JJnifor mil y is, after all, 

 the only rational s^'stem of nomenclature. 



ARENARIA CILIATA L. 



In the Nyt Magasin for Naturvidenskaherne, Iv. pp. 215-225 

 (1917), Messi's. Ostenfeld and O. Dalil, in a jiaper entitled " De 

 nordiske formen av Kollebivarten Arenaria ciliafa L.," divide the 

 above species into three subspecies, giving descriptions in Danish and 

 Latin. From this I extract the parts that will especially interest 

 British and Irish botanists. 



" 1. Subsp. HiBERNicA nob. foliis anguste oblongo-obovatis, sub- 

 acutis margine distincte ciliatis, subtus parce pubescentibus, distincte 

 nervosis ; sepalis distincte nervosis, dorso pubescentibus ; petalis 

 sepal is plus quam duplo longioribus ; caulibus pedunculisque dense 

 pubescentibus. 



" Ilab. Hibernia : Sligo : limestone cliffs of the Ben Bulben 

 Jlange, 1000-1950 feet. 



'• ^i/n. A. ciliatn auet. britan. e.g. J. T. MacJcay, Fl. tlibern. 

 183(5," 47. R. L. Praegcr, Tourist Fl. of West of Ireland, 1909, 12G. 



" Icon. English Botany, ed. 1, tab. 1745 ! R. L. Rraegcr, 1. c. 

 pi. 1(5 overst." 



The authors have seen a specimen from Ben Bulhcn. 



"2. Subsp. PsEUDOKUKiiDA nob. foliis oblongo-obovatis vol obo- 

 vatis, obtusis, margine basi saltern distincte ciliatis ; sepalis indistincte 

 nervosis, dorso glabris ; ])etalis sepalis plus quam duplo longioribus : 

 caulibus pedunculisque dense pubescentibus, pcdunculis brevibus. 



