CONCERNING THE CITATION OF AUTHORS. 091 
before the world is another century old, a protest once loudly 
made by such noble: men as Miller, Haller and Moeneh, 
against Linn:us' audacious rejection of old generic names, 
will be renewed, and perhaps successfully; that the real 
founder of genera, whom some of his contemporaries in Eng- 
land were wont to style Dr. Joseph Pitton, will receive liter- 
ary and scientific justice; that many genera of plants will be 
re-invested with the names originally given them by Tournefort 
and other early botanists; that Rumex and Euphorbia, for 
example, will be displaced in favor of the older and long uni- 
versal Lapathum and Tithymalus ; that Cypripedium and 
Tournefortia will be superseded by Calceolus and Pittonia, 
Tais may seem but a wild prediction to those whose eyes 
are closed to the tendencies of our day. But the author of 
these papers was long ago so convinced that a concerted 
action in this direction will yet be made, that he ventured to 
hint it, as he supposed, in the general title which these pages 
bear. But before such time shall come, the scientific world 
may have learned that only in a very limited way need 
descriptiva botanists be troubled with synonyms; and that 
to have created a few of them, in his time, will notin any 
author be reckoned a great fault, provided that by so doing 
he helped the world a little on its way to thorough fixity in 
the scientific names of things. 
CONCERNING THE CITATION OF AUTHORS. 
Many things are being said Just now, upon this topie, in 
the current botanical serials. While the subject is thus 
apparently under special consideration in several minds, we 
would fain add a few more suggestions. 
The vanity of botanists who wish to see their own names 
appended, parenthetically even, if not otherwise, to every 
