494 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



lievisio Generum Plantarum, vascularium omnium atque cellularium 

 multarum secundum leges nomenclaturce internationales cum 

 enumemtione jjlantanim exoticarum. in itineribiis miindi col- 

 lectarum. Pars IIF^. By Dr. Otto Kuntze, Leipzig, 

 28 Sept. 1898. 8vo, pp. vi, 201, 576. Price 28 marks. 



As set out in the title, this work deals with two kinds of 

 botanical matter — (1) a revision of the names of genera ; (2) an 

 enumeration of plants collected ; each is full of learned information, 

 and is done in a truly scientific manner. 



The laws of nomenclature are discussed afresh in detail, and 

 two long sections give an accouut of most of the literature on the 

 subject from 1893 to 1896 ; another section deals with the new 

 code of April, 1897, which was drawn up by Berlin botanists, and 

 signed by Dr. Engler and thh'teen others. This is criticized in a 

 masterly way, and some of its novel proposals are shown to be 

 objectionable ; the fourteen rules of the code are attacked in 

 seventeen annotations. Few will agree with Dr. Kuntze in con- 

 sidering that generic names published prior to the Linnean method 

 of nomenclature (1753) should oust other names then used by 

 Linnasus, or subsequently published by him or other authors. 

 Dr. Kuntze goes back for this purpose to 1735, the date of the first 

 edition of the Si/ste)na Naturce of Linnasus. Bentham and Hooker, 

 in 1862, in the preface to the first part of their Genera Pldutarum, 

 began with the statement — " Linnieus generis inventor fuit"; but 

 on the completion of the first volume in 1867 this statement was 

 changed into "Linnaeus primus Nomenclaturae generum et spe- 

 cierum leges certas pra3scripsit " ; and although in terms they 

 altogether neglect only ante-Linnean names, they do not in 

 general quote Linnean genera earlier than those used in the sixth 

 edition of Linnaeus' Genera Plantarum of 1764. Dr. Kuntze, 

 having in the previous parts of his Fievisio renamed a large number 

 of species in accordance with his prmciples, points out that many 

 more changes must be made if 1753 is taken as the startmg point 

 for genera. 



The most arbitrary innovation introduced into the Berlin code 

 is Rule 2, which presumes to bar generic names that have not 

 come into general use during fifty years, counting from their 

 establishment, unless they were again taken up in a monograph or 

 large flora in accordance with the laws of nomenclature of 1868. 

 This rale is valiantly resisted by Dr. Kuntze, who, besides arraying 

 powerful arguments of his own against it, quotes adverse opinions 

 of several botanists from widely distributed centres of thought, 

 including that of the Journal of Botanij of August, 1897, and the 

 following of Dr. IS. L. Britton : — "The application of the ideas 

 embodied in this paragraph would lead to great uncertainty in very 

 many cases, and we do not believe that the Berlin botanists will 

 long maintain them. How they can consistently decide on what is 

 ' general use,' as compared with that we may term ' special use,' is 



