370 REVIEWS. 



It is well, therefore, that publication by sufficient distribution 

 of named specimens should be recognized. But the remark 

 is true that, in fact, very few distributed collections fulfill all 

 the requirements of article 42. 



Article 47, sect. 2, recommends botanists " to publish no 

 name without clearly indicating whether it is that of an order 

 or of a tribe, of a genus or of a section, of a species or of a 

 variety — in short, without giving an opinion as to the nature 

 of the group to which the name is given." Unless this is 

 attended to, and uidess citations are equally precise, — for in- 

 stance, unless subgeneric names are cited as such and not as 

 generic, and vice versa, — much confusion in synonymy and 

 in indexes will ensue. 



Article 48, on the citation of the authority for generic and 

 specific names, and matters herewith connected, involves ques- 

 tions which have been more disputed than any other. In the 

 revised article the phrase printed in italic type is interpo- 

 lated : " For the indication of the name or names of any group 

 to be accurate and complete, and for the ready verification of 

 the date, it is necessary to quote the author who first published 

 the name or combination of names." ^ The statement might 



1 M. De CandoUe appears to insist upon this verification (or incipient 

 verification) for higher groups as well as for genera and species, and 

 would deprecate the not xmnsual custom in compendious Floras, Cata- 

 logues, etc., of omitting to cite the authority for orders, suh-ordors, tribes, 

 etc. We should agree with him if the omission was held to signify that the 

 names of tlie groups in (juestion, when thus simply given, were proposed 

 as new. But in fact, authority is omitted, not because the groups are 

 new, but because they are old and entirely familiar. Nobody will ever 

 suppose that RanunculacecB, Clematidece, etc., nakedly written, are novel- 

 ties. In this regard, the nature and plan of the publication are to be con- 

 sidered ; what is necessary in a Systema or a Genera Plantarum may be 

 superfluous in a local or a compendious work. Indeed it may be nearly 

 impossible to assign the authority for the name of an order correctly, 

 without explanation and extended references. One would wish to write, 

 succinctly, Comacece, DC, as De Candolle founded the order, but it was 

 in the form Comece. A well-known order was instituted as Onagrce, 

 Juss., "Genera Plantarum," which the founder altered to Onagraria ; 

 for reasons referred to in this article we may wish to adopt the form 

 Onagracea. As all this is most familiar matter, yet may not be correctly 



