228 PITTONIA. 
contributing to it himself, held sufficiently in abhorrence. 
But, more probably, men of such originality of thought, clear- 
ness of perception, and of such logical force, as Crantz and 
Scopoli, needed no hint from another, to impel them in the 
direction which they took. The principle of priority, be it 
remembered, was one which the men of those times respected 
most deeply ; and Linnwus’ frequent disregard of it was one 
of the most effectual weapons in the hands of his adversaries. 
But, even a year before Scopoli adopted binomialism in his 
second edition of the Flora Carniolica, Linnzeus himself, in 
the Mantissa Altera, had altered the limits of a few genera, 
such as the merging of the large genus Leucadendron in 
Protea, and so had been obliged to show what his mind was. 
If he had not before in any way indicated to Crantz and Miller 
the course they had taken, he followed their practice when 
now his own turn had come; for he, I believe uniformly, 
makes new combinations only, avoiding the introduction of 
new specific names. Had he felt that no violation of impor- 
tant principle was involved in the action, he could now have 
put an end to the use of so ridiculous a specific name as that 
which he had, at the first, burdened his Leucadendron H. ypo- 
phyllocarpodendron. If permanency was not a matter 
of principle, now was the opportunity to have altered it into 
something like what we now have from Willdenow, Protea 
Hypophylla. But no: so entirely does he seem to hold by 
the doctrine of the necessary perpetuity of the specific name 
first given, that he writes Protea H ypophyllocarpodendron, 
apparently nothing doubting that that will continue to be the 
name of the species forever. 
Complaint is made, in some quarters, against the practice 
of restoring old and long neglected specific names. But how 
studiously do not the complainants avoid any approach to the 
real point at issue? It is merely begging the whole question 
to urge that the taking up of the oldest name under the 
proper genus, is going far enough. But that complete evasion 
is all we get in answer to our appeals for light; save only the 
