206 LES VEGETAUX ET LES MILIEUX COSMIQUES. 



Pseudorlaya in Umhelliferm, and is allied to Orlaya and Daiiciis, 

 being diagnosed from them as follows : — 



Orlaya : prickles of the secondary ridges of the fruit hooked at 

 the apex. 



Pseudorlaya : prickles of the secondary ridges in two or three 

 rows, straight at the apex. 



DaucHs : prickles of the secondary ridges in one row, straight at 

 the apex. 



The naming of the species of the new genus, recorded on p. 86, 

 is not without interest ; the name and synonymy as quoted, with 

 dates, are : — 



Pseudorlaya maritima. 



Daucus muricatus, fi. maritimus L. (1753). 

 CaiicaUs puuiila Gouan (1765). 



C. maritima Gouan (1767). 



D. maritimus Gaertn. (1788), non Lam. (1789). 

 Orlaya maritima Koch (1824). 

 D. pumilus Ball (1878). 



The selection by the author of the specific name maritima is quite 

 apt and need not be complained of, although it is clearly a violation 

 of the rule, with which unfortunately many botanists attempt to 

 fetter nomenclature, compelling the adoption of the oldest specific 

 name in all cases, regardless of propriety ; indeed our author, in a 

 note on p. 25, concedes and insists on this principle, and there coins 

 a new name for a species which had already been adequately named 

 in the right genus, in order to include the oldest trivial name. In 

 the case of the Pseudorlaya it appears that muricata is the oldest trivial 

 name. If it is to be contended that, as Linnaeus had confused two 

 different plants under this name, the typical one not being the plant 

 under consideration, muricata cannot be accepted in this case, then 

 the oldest possible trivial name would be jnimila; in no case, how- 

 ever, can maritima claim to accord strictly with the rule, the force 

 of which Murbeck fully admits in principle. Yet the name employed 

 by him is so good and obviously the best one for his purpose, that 

 the departure from the principle appears not even to have occurred 

 to his mind. It is to be hoped there was no intention to extend 

 this objectionable and disturbing rule, so as to compel the adoption 

 of a mere varietal name, even when originally applied to a totally 

 wrong species and in a wrong genus. -^y p ^ 



Les Veqetaux et les Milieux cosm.iques [Adaptation — Evolution). Par 



J. Costantin. 8vo, pp. 292, figs. 171. Paris: Bailliere. 1898. 



Price 6 fr. 



This volume is the eighty-eighth of the French International 



Scientific Library, of which M. ^m. Aiglave is editor. It is a good 



example of the kind of book such a series should contain, in that it 



gives a readable account of one aspect of a science without attempting 



too much, or pretending to be a text-book. It is the kind of book 



which tends to popularize without degrading science. Many of the 



points raised admit of far wider discussion, and theories are sug- 



