76 ERYTHEA. 
have wondered that, even at the cultured East, no protest 
has been raised against certain supposed, but impossible, 
specific names (?) with which Mr. E. P. Sheldon has 
attempted to invest some Astragali. 
This aspiring man has not only assumed that a mere 
beginner in systematic botany may unblushingly announce 
himself an authority upon so large and difficult a genus as 
Astragalus; he has shown such innocence of the principles 
of nomenclature as conceives that any pronounceable jumble 
of letters and syllables may pass for a specific name. 
The first four which I shall here cite are each compounded 
of words taken from two languages. Syllables thus run 
together do not form words; hence they can not be names; 
and, although for convenience I must cite them as if they 
were synonyms, they are not such; for what was never a 
name can not become a synonym. 
Astragalus thermalis. A. “cuspidocarpus,” Sheld. 
Minn. Bot. Studies, i. 147. 
Astragalus seleneus. A. “crescenticarpus,” Sheld. 1. c. 
48. 
Astragalus ammolotus. A. “elatiocarpus,” Sheld. 1. ¢. 
20. 
Astragalus leucocystis. 4. “lanocarpus,” Sheld. 1. e. 
44, 
Astragalus miserandus. A. “ bajaensis,” Sheld. 1. c. 
169. This last piece of literary jugglery is highly curious. 
The Spanish adjective baja, meaning the lower of two things, 
or places, with the Latin ending ensis suffixed to it! It is no 
word, any more than lowerensis would bea word. Indeed 
the latter is a perfect equivalent for bajaensis; and if this 
can be a plant-name, so can that. 
