WHEREFORE PITTONIA ? 
The foregoing pages, issued some months ago, have elicited 
enquiry as to the meaning and purpose of PrrTONIA. 
Although we gave them forth in a form which implied that 
other pages were to follow, we had no idea that we were initi- 
ating what would be called a Journal, or be thought worthy 
of mention in connection with such important publications as 
LiNNXA and Apansonta. Therefore our friends of the edi- 
torial staff of the Torrey Bulletin and the renowned botanical 
editor of the American Journal of Science have done Pittonia 
honors little merited and wholly unexpected. 
The succession of papers which we hope to continue under 
this title will have more or less to do with the genera and 
species of plants and their nomenclature. They will there- 
fore be quoted. For convenience of citation they must needs 
have some general name ; and the same necessity which calls 
for a name suggests the desirability of its being a short and 
easy one. Pittonia as a mere name will answer all these pur- 
poses as well as Linnea, Grevillea, Adansonia and others have 
done ; and it will also call to mind, as each of those does, an. 
eminent botanist. Professor Gray could readily perceive that 
it comes from the family name of Tournefort, an author who 
is commemorated in our present generical nomenclature by 
the name Tournefortia. That is the Linnsan name of the 
genus dedicated to the great French botanist of almost two 
centuries ago. It is a longer and less euphonious name than 
Pittonia; and besides that, the very same genus which adorns 
the memory of Tournefort was originally named Pittonia by 
that very learned contemporary of Tournefort and eminent 
botanist, the Reverend Father Charles Plumier. This was 
done in the year 1703, four years before Linné was born 
51 Issued July 1, 1887. 
