CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY NO. 16 



Theer remain now nothing but riff-raff to name, such as Scribner and C. C. 

 Parry, who were two of the worst grafters; Charley Orcutt, who had much 

 talent, but was petted by Cleveland so much that he swelled up like a toad 

 and — burst. Cleveland was a fine gentleman who specialized on the ferns. 



THE "PUSH" AS PEONIZERS. 



"Our state botanist informs me that you have issued a very interesting 

 publication called Contribution No. 15. The one referred to is concerned 

 with certain observations on botanical methods. I shall be very glad to get 

 hold of a publication that speaks its mind regarding the elect in botanical 

 circles. I find a lot of stuff is kept under cover if it concerns the 'leaders.' 

 E. L. Greene once wrote a brochure scoring Asa Gray and several more, 

 but he was dissuaded from publishing it. I saw a letter a long while ago 

 from an editor asking whether it was policy to let Aven Nelson have two 

 pages in which to describe some new species. Well, let me have No. 15 as 



- 

 3 thinks. That the suppression of such 

 things is desirable to the 'Tush," at least, is also self-evident. But the ques- 

 tion is, -What right has the Tush' to attempt it?" Anyone who is familim 

 with botanical literature for the last sixty years knows that there was great 

 friction between workers, and when the original workers died there sprang 

 up institution! I is rampant. My first acquaintance with 



this spirit came when I read Gray's rasping and deserved attack on Buckley 

 for deliberateh pro <\i\n his i i names for new species in the herbarium 

 of the Philadelphia Academy of Science in place of the manuscript names 

 of Nuttall, the discoverer of the species. All older botanists know that 

 money was not available to XuUall to pul h-h his new species and genera, 

 and for this reason Gray felt that Nuttall had ihe first right to name his own 

 species, which names should be conserved. In the Flora of North America 

 by Torrey and Gray they earned (Ids out to the limit. But the publications 

 even of Nuttall 's names without his sanction lingered him. and his corre- 

 spondence with Gray shows i; unnvisiakably. Gray by the sheer force of his 

 personality and sharp pen awed most men into silence. Then as the years 

 slipped by the homage given to him by all of us because of his remarkabl; 

 good work led him to feel that lie had a vested right in the publication of 

 new names. Along in the eighties there began to come up systematists who 

 had spent their time and money in exploring the great west. The most 

 active of these men were Brandt iree. Kelharg. I'ari.-h, Cusiek. Greene and 



ina. And we were ■ Gray would 



