PRODROME DE LA FLORE CORSE 277 



volume contains some introductory matter, including a resume of 

 the itinerary on the various journeys, followed by a bibliography 

 of Corsican botany, containing one hundred and fifty-eight items, 

 and a list of twelve exsiccata. The remainder of the volume is 

 occupied with a critical list of the vascular plants, arranged accord- 

 ing to Dr. Engler's system, and including the Ferns, Monocoty- 

 ledons, and Dicotyledons to the end of LauracecB. The second 

 volume will, it is hoped, conclude the ArchicJilamydece, and deal 

 with part of the MetachlamydecB, while volume iii. will complete 

 the Metaclilaviydea, and contain besides a general index, a geo- 

 botanical account of the island, a history of its botany, and a 

 geographical index. It goes without saying that the author has 

 followed the International Eules of Nomenclature, in the revision 

 of which, in 1905, he played so important a part, and in the 

 course of his work will be found valuable notes on the nomen- 

 clature of certain genera and species. Among others, reference 

 may be made to the restoration of NymphcRct and Nnphar in the 

 sense in which they were until recent years generally used. Dr. 

 Briquet shows that there is no ground for the displacement of 

 Nymphcea by Salisbury's Castalia, and the inversion of Nuphar 

 and NymplicBCL. Salisbury, when establishing Castalia, adopted it 

 for the larger section of the original genus, and used the original 

 Linnean name Nymphcsa for the smaller section, thus uncon- 

 sciously breaking the rule that, other things being equal, the 

 original name, when a genus is divided, must be kept for the part 

 which contains the greater number of species. 



A less welcome change is the replacement of the name Silene 

 Gucuhalus Wibel (the old S. inflata Sm.) by S. angustifolia Guss. 

 In our List of British Seed Plants and Ferns, Mr. Britten and I 

 adopted the trivial latifolia for this species, following Miller 

 {Diet. Gard. ed. 8), who established three species, Gucuhalus 

 Behen, C. latifolius, and G. angustifoUus, the two former synony- 

 mous with the typical Silene Gucuhalus, and the last with a 

 narrow-leaved variety, the var. angustifolia DC As the name 

 Silene Behen was already occupied, we adopted the binominal 

 *S'. latifolia, overlooking the fact that Gussone had previously (in 

 1827) described the narrow-leaved plant as a distinct species in 

 his Flor. Sicul. Prodr. (i. 500). As it seems generally agreed that 

 this peculiar narrow-leaved form must be included in the larger 

 species, the name for the aggregate must be S. angustifolia, how- 

 ever inappropriate this may be for our British plant. 



Reference may also be made to one other small point in nomen- 

 clature, namely, the method of writing double-barreled species- 

 names, such as Alisma Plantago-aquatica ; Dr. Briquet writes 

 these as three words, though in the text of the Rules a liyphen is 

 inserted between the two parts of this trivial. This is certainly 

 preferable ; the binominal system is one to be maintained as 

 intact as possible, and we have more than once expressed regret 

 at the trinominals used by some authors by suppressing the term 

 var. between the name of a species and its variety. 



But these are matters somewhat apart from Briquet's carefully 



