OPEN LETTERS. 13 



the "Kocliester Code," necessarily, nor of any other formu- 

 lated set of rules more or less complicated and inter-contra- 

 dictory, but the cause of simple historic priority, exceptions 

 being made only when a purely binomial nomenclature 

 demands the suppression of an intractable generic name or a 

 too long specific one; and these would not be found so yery 

 numerous. While I feel the warmest sympathy with, and 

 allegiance to, every regulation voted in any Congress or Club 

 of botanists, that makes for historic truthfulness, and is not 

 at war with binary names, sound reason and good grammar, 

 I still do not share Prof. Bailey's expectations that the rules 

 passed of late in America, may bring peace even for 

 a time. That many of these have been!, too hastily formu- 

 lated, and too inconsiderately passed by vote, is evinced by 

 the fact that the very framers of them are soon found to 

 ignore them, upon occasion. Instances of this are already in 

 print relating even to a thing so new as the Madison Code; 

 and one may judge the "soporific" qualities of our codes to 

 be feeble when, so very soon after their enactment, their 

 former most strenuous advocates find them here and there 



unworthy of respect. 



But along the lines of truthfulness and accuracy, the 

 ground is always firm beneath one's feet, and one may labor 

 bare with satisfaction, and in confidence as to the future, 

 whether now there be war or peace.— Edwabd L. Gkeene, 

 Berkeley, Calif., December 23, 1893. 



Publication of varieties. 



I NOTE in Contributions from the U. S. National Herbarium, 

 Vol. I, No. 8, page 271, an example (followed, I think, 

 throughout the number, ) of an inconvenient way of publish- 



ing a new variety. 



fl 



It seems 



to me that when a new variety is published the identity of 

 the type should be more definitely given. Poa flexuosa may 

 or may not be a definite thing. The binomial may have been 

 used by many men to signify many different plants, and the 



