ECHINOCYSTIS § MEGARRHIZA. 143 
of short spreading bristles, which are distinct, or joined at 
ase. 
Obtained somewhere on the plains of the Sacramento, Cal., 
April, 1887, by Dr. C. C. Parry. Like A. humistrata (page 
16 preceding) in habit, but much more pubescent and with 
widely different nutlets, their curiously traced rugosities sug- 
gesting the specifie name. 
ECHINOCYSTIS $ MEGARRHIZA. 
II. 
The limitation of genera is largely a matter of individual 
opinion. We have expressed heretofore our view of the limits 
of Echinocystis, and have given our reasons. If we had been an- 
swered to by other reasons, as we have not, we should still have 
no more to say upon that aspect of the present case ; recogniz- 
ing, as we do, theright of every botanistto have, to express, and 
to carry out his own opinions in such matters, with the fullest 
freedom. But there is one kind of liberty which is granted 
to none of us, and that is, to take for our genera whatever 
names suit our fancy. 
Separate or combine plants generically as we will, or as we 
think we must, we are bound to take for our genus the first 
name that happens to have been given to it; it may not be the 
fittest or the most euphonious of the several which may have 
been employed ; it may not have been framed and applied by 
the most eminent of scholars ; but if it isthe first in history, 
thatis the name our genus must bear. The principle is a 
fundamental one in botanical bibliography. 
I may at some future day be brought to share the views of 
Dr. Sereno Watson, regarding the proper generical status of 
those Pacific American cucurbits about which he and I, and 
some older and better botanists than either of us, have written 
somewhat. Were he and I to-day of one mind upon the sub- 
ject, it would not be left to him to select one name for these 
