of the Genus Tofiddia. 237 



nently conspicuous among the works which have conduced to 

 the latter object. Their authors have, in this instance, wisely 

 exercised that discretionary paramount authority, which belongs 

 only to the leaders in Botany, of overruling a prior claim of no- 

 menclature. Instead of setting up the original ylnlhcricum, they 

 have retained that name for the numerous species to which it is 

 popularly applied, and which make the bulk of the genus as 

 Linnaeus and his followers have subsequently understood it. 

 Hence a very troublesome degree of perplexity is avoided ; espe- 

 cially as these writers must otherwise either have invented a new 

 name, or have restored Bulbinc, already difl'erently applied by 

 Gaertner. They certainly knew better than to take up with 

 Tournefort's Phalangium, which is appropriated to a genus of 

 insects. 



The author of the Flora Britannica indeed, aware of the above- 

 mentioned confusion and pretensions respecting ^n</imc«?«, had 

 exercised the same discretionary power, following Mr. Hudson in 

 bis name of Tojleldia. Under this is commemorated Mr. Tofield, 

 a country gentleman in the neighbourhood of Doncaster, who 

 there discovered the J icia bitlnjnica, a plant which had escaped 

 the notice of Ray and tiie botanists of his time, though since ob- 

 served in other parts of England. The herbarium of Mr. Tofield 

 came, in 1793, after his decease, into the possession of Dr. Younge 

 of Sheffield, F.L..S. 



Jussieu, led by Gerard, has transferred Moering's name of AW- 

 ihccium to our Toficldia ; from an idea, as it appears, that the 

 real Narthecium of that author belonged to this genus, though 

 nothing can be more distinct. We believe it to be no less di- 

 stinct from Anthericum, though retained in that genus, after 

 Willdenow, in the Horins Keicensis. The able M. DecandoUe, 

 not wishing perhaps to clash with Jussieu, has called this last 



plant 



