234 NORGES ARKTISKE FLORA. 



this subject. The name of each plant consists of a generic and a 

 specific designation, and the author of the name is the botanist 

 who first gave it to the plant. Mr. Seward deals very differently 

 with the names of his fossils. Take as an example the plant whose 

 name he gives as Dioonites EroiH/niarti (Mant.). This is how the 

 synonymy is recorded : — 1833 Cycadites Brongniarti Mantell, 1841 

 rteropln/llnm Brongniarti Morris, 1842 Hisingera Mantellii Miquel, 

 1844 Nilssonia Brongniarti Bi'own, 1849 Zamites lirongniarti Broug- 

 niart, 1850 Nilssonia Brongniarti Unger, Nilssonia Brongniarti 

 Bronn and Romer, 1852 Nilsso7iia Brongniarti Ettingshausen (this 

 is a strange innovation : the species is Bronn's and should be (quoted 

 as Bronn in Unger, I.e. &c.), 185G Nilssonia Brongniarti Borneman 

 1871 Dioonites Brongniarti Schenk., 1874 Dioonites Brongniarti 

 Schimper, Pterophyllum Brongniarti Topley, Dioonites Brongniarti 

 Renault, Dioonites Kotoei Yokoyama. In this list the author of the 

 name is neglected, and each writer who has used the name is treated 

 as if he were its author. For another species the author employs the 

 name Bennettites [Cgcadeoidea] Saxbganns (Brown). Brown called it 

 Cycadites Sa.rbganns : the author of the trinomiiial is Mr. Seward. 

 It is very desirable to adopt a recognized system and to follow it. 

 But from the quotations given in this notice it must be evident 

 that the author is not in accord with botanists in his treatment of 

 existing names. When it is a matter of securing greater fitness by 

 a new name as compared with the existing name, no finality can be 

 reached in nomenclature. Would that no one were allowed to touch 

 Systematic Botany until he had mastered the principles and become 

 acquainted with some of the generally accepted rules of botanical 

 nomenclature ! 



W. C. 



Norges Arktiske Flora. By J. M. Norman. Parts I. and II. 

 Pp. 760, 442. Kristiana. 1894-5. (With a Map.) 



This is a work which must have cost the author an immense 

 amount of time and patience. The only book on British Botany 

 which (so far as I know) can be at all compared with it is Mr. 

 Watson's Geographical Distribution of British Plants (1843) ; but 

 that has not one-sixth of the work in it that Dr. Norman's has. 



The author defines Arctic Norway as Norway north of the 

 Arctic " Polar " Circle. The introductory matter runs to forty-five 

 pages, and consists of a list of the seven divisions (lettered A to G) 

 into which he divides the country ; these are again divided into 

 25 districts, and again into about 220 sub-districts, with about 

 650 localities, which, however, consist in some cases of the north 

 or south slope of certain mountains. The actual stations for 

 plants represent about 1500 habitats — or, roughly, some 48,000 

 for Banuncnlacea^ to Pgrolacea:.; a list of the sub-districts with their 

 latitude, height in metres (corrected for temperature) ; a similar 

 list with the dates (and notes of the exposure, &c.) when observed ; 

 and a list of heights, in which 1526 metres seems to be the highest. 

 Although these heights are given in metres, in the body of the work 



