December 7, 1907 . 135 
EDITORIAL 
It is a pleasure to bring to notice the Riverside Botanical 
Club, composed of a band of earnest botanical workers located 
in southern California in the midst of orange and lemon groves. 
The fact that only a few years ago this now beautiful and pro- 
ductive spot was little more than a desert, shows what enterprise 
and perseverence can do. That this same spirit of progress also 
enters into their botanical life is very evident. Would that we 
had more of it in this land of unexcelled botanical opportunity, 
but with so few active workers! We hope to hear very often of 
the doings of the Riverside Botanical Club. 
Sad to say, we owe our readers an apology, and shall hasten 
to make it with due humility. At the bottom of page 120 the 
statement is made that it is “the one weak spot in-an otherwise 
admirable code.” Unfortunately, that “one weak spot’? was not 
accurately measured. It should have been enlarged consider- 
ably. The very day the last number was mailed we read Pro- 
fessor L. M. Underwood's paper in the October Zorreya on “The 
Names of some of our native Ferns,” and there discovered that 
the American code does not recognize the priority right of the 
varietal name, but that in all cases the varietal name must give 
way to the specific name, no matter how much older the former 
may be, or how clear its identity. The number of the Bulletin 
of the Torrey Botanical Club in which the revised. American 
code is printed is not now at hand, but we examined it some 
time ago with special reference to the status of varieties, and are 
of the impression that the wording is the same as: that of Canon 
9 (c), printed in the May, 1904 number. Unless we are very 
obtuse, there is nothing in the wording of that paragraph indi- 
cating that a specific name a/ways has precedence over a -vari- 
etal one, but o7/y in the case of similar names in the same genus. 
The former is not a just interpretation, and is at variance with 
the principle of priority. The editor has nothing to lose either 
way, for he does not describe varieties and never expects to, but 
