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Linnaeus in the use of these terms ; and he here returns to 

 the subject, reinforcing his former argiunents. It is most 

 desirable that these terms should not continue to be employed 

 in contradictory senses, one party calling that sinistrorse 

 which the other calls dextrorse ; it is also fitting that the 

 principle of priority should prevail and that the authority 

 of Linnaeus should be respected. Let us, therefore, in the 

 first place give an abstract of the points which De CandoUe 

 here makes. 



But first, we take it for granted that a stem or such organ, 

 having no front or back, can have no right or left of its own : 

 so when we say that it twines to the left or right, we can 

 mean nothing else than the right or left of the observer. The 

 contradiction comes from the different position which the 

 observer is conceived to occupy. Do Candolle supposes the 

 observer to be placed within the coil or ascending helix, and 

 that this is the more natural position. The other party sup- 

 poses the observer to face the object from without ; and from 

 this position the Hop twines to the left, i. e., turns in ascend- 

 ing from the observer's right to his left, while the Convol- 

 vulus turns from his left to his right ; the first is sinistrorse, 

 the second dextrorse ; while to De Candolle, standing within 

 the coil, the first is dextrorse, the second sinistrorse. Now, 

 says De Candolle, Linnaeus in the first edition (1751) of the 

 " Philosophia Botanica," § 163, page 103, says : " Sinistror- 

 sum hoc est quod respicit sinistrum, si pouas te ipsum in 

 centro constitutum, meridiem adspicere ; dextrum itaque con- 

 trarium." 



De Candolle remarks that the phrase "meridiem adspi- 

 cere " is of no account [but it indicates a certain confusion 

 in Linnaeus's mind], for it matters not in what direction you 

 look. He adds — what we had all overlooked — that in the 

 errata, on p. 360, Linnaeus corrected the word sinistrum into 

 dextram. But, inasmuch as two editions of the " Pliil().so]>lna 

 Botanica " were printed at Vienna in Linnffius's lifetime, and 

 this correction was not introduced into them, he concludes 

 that the correction was cancelled by the author of it. And he 

 notes that the expression " sinistrorsum hoc est quod respicit 



