6i6 NATURAL SCIENCE. Oct.. 



enunciation of the formula " once a synonym always a synonym. "'° 

 This was promulgated by Dr. N. L. Britton in April, 1891/' 

 and was hailed with enthusiasm by his fellow-reformer, Professor 

 E. L. Greene, although it wrings from him the melancholy 

 confession that after the many years during which they have 

 laboured at correcting the errors of their predecessors, not 

 even the beginning of a settlement has been attained. "Change 

 and confusion," says Professor Greene, " are sure to be the order 

 of the day so long as revertible names are not everywhere 

 ignored." A name once employed and dropped, must never, under 

 any circumstances, be used again. " The sooner systematic botanists 

 agree upon the principle ' once a synonym always a synonym,' the 

 earlier will botanical nomenclature begin to be found a settled thing." 

 Professor Greene then proceeds, with his usual promptitude, to put 

 his principles into practice, and at once gets rid of several well-known 

 names, e.g., Torreya, Arnott (1830), for which Tumion, Rafinesque (1840), 

 is to be substituted, Torveya having been previously employed and 

 rejected for other genera. This also gives him an opportunity for 

 inventing entirely new names ; Osmaronia is to supplant the well- 

 known Niittallia of Torrey and Gray, Chrysamphora supersedes Dar- 

 lingtonia, DC, and so on. This new device for increasing an already 

 redundant nomenclature is to apply to species as well as to genera, 

 and if Dr. Britton, Professor Greene, and their friends are let alone, 

 they will probably succeed in renaming the American flora three or 

 four times over before botanical nomenclature becomes " a settled 

 thing." 



The priority of a name, according to Dr. Britton, is established 

 in some cases by its position on a page ! Thus, Adanson proposed 

 the names Tissa and Biida for the group of plants since called 

 Spevgulavia and Lepigonum. CcBtevis paribus, it would have appeared 

 natural, should either be revived, to adopt that which stood first on 

 the page ; but Dumortier, who first (in 1827) called attention to 

 Adanson's names, preferred to adopt Buda, the second in position. 

 Dr. Britton, however, considered that Tissa had a prior claim, 

 inasmuch as it preceded Buda on the page, and he did not scruple to 

 substitute Tissa where Buda had been employed.'- His discovery of a 

 yet earlier name, Corion, has not only set this question at rest, but has 

 given Mr. N. E. Brown an opportunity of inventing another set of 

 synonyms, to each of which his own name is attached. '3 "I accepted 

 Tissa rather than 5;<^rt," says Dr. Britton, "for the simple reason that it 

 stands first on the page in Adanson's Families. That is priority, I am 

 sure." Priority of //rtf^, yes ; but will anyone seriously contend that 

 one part of a page is published before another? If so, there is a fine 



^^ Garden and Forest, vol. iv., p. 202. 11 Pittonia, vol. ii., p. 187. 



1- See Journal of Botany, 1890, pp. 157, 295. 

 1^ Supplement to English Bo'.any , ed. iii., p. 48. 



