22 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



becoming accustomed to the sight. In this country they already 

 write Ulex europcea without any undue pangs of remorse, and 

 evince no inordinate longings to revert to Ulex Eur vpcea, a usage 

 which, though not countenanced by the rules, is still adhered to 

 in some large modern floras. It cannot be said that the rules 

 relating to this matter are logical, if judged by the canons of 



glish grammar, for a specific name must be spelt with a small 

 letter if it is called after Wiltshire, the county, but with a capital 

 letter if called after Wiltshire, a man. The adoption of a rule 

 to spell all trivial names with small letters would spare us the 

 glaring misuse of capitals in popular and semi-popular articles on 

 botanical subjects, though botanists themselves are scarcely in a 

 position to throw stones at the perpetrators of such errors, for 

 who are the botanists w 7 ho do not live in glasshouses'? The 

 suggested rule is already in use among some fossil botanists 

 and among zoologists in general ; and its adoption by all other 

 biologists would entail no sacrifice of principle, but would result 

 in a real saving of time. — C. E. Moss. 



[Dr. Moss is of course aware that his proposal directly con- 

 troverts Eecommendation x. of the Vienna Congress : it seems to 

 us undesirable to depart from a practice which is sanctioned both 

 by rule and custom. — Ed. Journ. Bot.] 



Viola calcarea Gregory. — Dr. Williams, in his Prodromus 

 (p. 581), gives V. parvula Opiz as an earlier name for this plant. 

 This no doubt is so, but the reference to the "Bohm. Gewachs. 

 1823 " is not the first description by Opiz ; this occurs in the 

 Naturalientausch, p. 47, 1821. But even if retained only as a 

 variety, I think the name must be quoted of Kosteletzky, Clavis 

 anal, in Fl. Bohemise phan. p. 38, 1824, where he describes it as 

 •• V. hirta /J parvula Opiz." Many species are only named in the 

 Gewachs. without description. The Naturalientausch is rare as a 

 complete work; the author's own copy in the Prague Museum has 

 1-722 pages (Preface dated " 26 Juin 1816"), 1819-1829. In it 

 he describes, besides forty-two species of Mentha, ninety-five 

 Phanerogams and twenty-seven Cryptogams. See Deseglise in 

 Ann. Soc. Bot. de Lyon, 1879-80. — Arthur Bennett. 



Dlbx minor Both (nanus Forst.) (Journ. Bot. 1912, 378).— 

 Mr. J I. W. Pugsley in his note has mistaken the record in 

 Townsend's Flora of Hants of the occurrence of Ulex minor Roth 

 in the Isle of Wight. Besides the localities which Mr. Pugsley 

 mentions, and which he states are the only ones given in the 

 Flora, four others are given, with the addition — " and in other 

 parts freq." It is, in fact, almost equally as common as 

 U. enropceus. — Fred. Stratton. 



[Mr. Pugsley tells us that he wrote "South Wight," which has 

 been misprinted " Isle of Wight " in the passage referred to.— 

 Ed. Journ. Bot.] 



