" PSEUDO-NOMENCLATURE.'* 231 



iu printing Mr. Dyer's remarks was unreasonable, it may be well to 

 state tbat tliey have been in type since December, although croAvded 

 out by the pressure of other matter. Moreover, we do not think that 

 this is one of the subjects on which Mr. Dyer is entitled to speak 

 ex cathedrd. 



The absence of any definite principle of nomenclature among 

 the Kew school of botanists is notorious, and its justification by 

 them on the score of " convenience" is equally well known. Even 

 in their own publications their inconsistency is manifest. For 

 example, in the Flora of Tropical Africa, the Decandollean rule 

 (Art. 33), "Whatever be the form chosen, every specific name 

 derived from the name of a person should begin with a capital 

 letter" is observed; in the Botany of the lUolayia Cent rali- Americana, 

 Mr. Hemsley follows the zoologists, and abandons capitals for such 

 names altogether; while in the Kew lists and Bulletin a f Miscellaneous 

 Information, the genitive form has a capital, and the adjective a small 

 initial. Such want of consistency, coupled with the disregard for 

 accuracy in dating its publications referred to in our last number 

 (p. 169), seems to us to disqualify the Kew botanists from speaking 

 with authority on matters of nomenclature. 



But nothing is further from the fact than Mr. Beeby's impli- 

 cation that only one view in nomenclature is allowed to be stated 

 in this Journal. During the last few years, not only Mr. Jackson 

 and the Editor, but Dr. Britton, Prof. Greene, Mr. Druce, Prof. 

 Babington, Prof. L. H. Bailey, and Mr. Beeby himself, have had 

 full liberty to state their views ; and if earlier volumes be con- 

 sulted, papers by Alphonse DeCandolle, Asa Gray, Dr. Trimen, 

 the Messrs. Groves and others will be found, testifying not only to 

 the variety of opinions, but to the freedom with which their ex- 

 pression has been permitted. Not only so, but those who are 

 familiar with our pages will note instances in which our own mode 

 of printing names of species has been set aside in order to please 

 individual contributors ; and no later than last year at least one 

 combination which the Editor considered improper was allowed to 

 stand at the request of the botanist responsible for it. 



Mr. Beeby raises one point regarding Mr. Jackson's Index which 

 demands a word. Mr. Beeby quotes Mr. Druce as saying, " From 

 the Index yYeleavnihsii Viola ericetoriun^chrsidev . . . is synonymous 

 with V. sijlvestris'' ; he then proceeds to cite Mr. Dyer's remark, " It 

 is a mistake to suppose that [the hidex] expresses any opinion as to 

 the validity of the names themselves," and to refer to our own note 

 to the same effect (Journ. Bot. 1894, 376), which, we venture to 

 think, states the case more accurately than Mr. Dyer has done. 

 But surely, unless the well-known sign " = " is to be taken in a 

 "non-natural" sense, Mr. Druce is right and Mr. Dyer wrong. 

 Here is the statement in question : — 



"ericetorum Schrad. ex Link Enum. Hort. Berol. i. 240 = sylvestris." 



If this does not bear out Mr. Druce's interpretation of it, what does 

 it mean ? If it does not, as Mr. Dyer says, " express any opinion," 

 what does it express ? "Why is ericetorum italicized, and what does 



