48 



SEXTUPLE BOTANY. 



They say that there is nothing new under the sun, hut this 

 is a delusion of the ancients. 



Rydberg, in Torr. Bull. Vol. 37 in commenting on Nelson's 

 Coulters Flora, says that he thinks no genus should contain more 

 than six species, his conception of species being meant of course. 



This great pronouncement effectually eclipses that wonderful 

 Brittonjo-Covillean emanation "Once a synonym always a syno- 

 nym", while Greene with his multitudinous Eschscholtzias and 

 dogbanes is relegated to $ie race suicide class. It is too bad to so 

 rn ssly and suddenly snatch from him this malodorous suprem- 

 cy and at a time when advancing years and the tremendous han- 

 leap of absence of any access to that Ponce do Lecm fountain of 

 metre olitan botanical inspiration makes a suitable defense im- 

 possible. There ought to be some statute covering the case. He 

 might invoke the law against cruelty to animals (and would re- 

 ceive the support of all systematic botanists), or the antitrust law, 

 cornering botanical inspiration. Or failing in that Greene could 

 tac Astragalus and, if his work on Eschseholtzia and Apocy- 

 num is any index, he could make over half a million species and so 

 work Rydberg's sextuple genera to death. What a frightful drain 

 all this would be ou the already much-abused Latin and Greek. 



Since Eydberg would get the worst of it we should all rush to 

 his aid. There are at least twenty fairly good varieties of Astraga- 

 3 lentiginosua which he would make into species, it would be a 

 good idea to keep a string on them to prevent their being lost in 

 the shuffle when they are "segregated" into half a dozen or more 

 new genera, and in addition we should by all means properly per- 

 petuate the memory of these great botanical creators. 



My system would work out like this for A. lentiginosua var. 



Coulteri (Gray) Jones- Rybergia-Astragaio-lcntiginosa Coul- 



teri (Gray) Rydberg. After Greene had taken a whack at the Tar. 

 and made a few hundred species out of ii Rydberg would have to 

 take a second hitch at it and one of the new names would be this 



EydbergiaxGreenea-Astragalo-lentiginoso-Conltera septem-bugho- 



la (Greem) Rydberg. 



