156 ERYTHEA. 
The resolutions of the Genoa Congress must fail to obtain 
the force of international laws, by reason of— 
I. Four illegalities in its organization and methods of 
procedure. 
(1.) The Congress, consisting as it did of sixty Italians 
and only forty men from other countries, lowered 
itself from an international to a local one by 
adopting the Italian language, which is not inter- 
national. 
(2.) The _ conceded the privilege of voting to 
mbers of the Italian Botanical Society, who 
were sent in attendance, not members of the 
Congress. 
(3.) Neither by any previous Congress, nor by any pro- 
gramme of its own, was the Genoa Congress con- 
voked in legislative session for the purpose of 
altering the Paris Code. 
(4.) There was no committee appointed beforehand 
charged with investigating and deliberating upon 
the law propositions that might be involved. 
Through haying neglected this precaution, the 
Congress evinced ignorantia rerum in two cases: 
(a) the amendment proposed by Prof. Prantl, 
and adopted by the Congress, being founded on a 
mistake respecting Adanson, against whose genera 
it was aimed; for Adanson did not reject binary 
names, but only wished, that all specific names 
might be proper names: (b) in proposing to 
relegate “useless synonyms” to the category 0 
nomina nuda, the Congress proved that it did not 
know what nomina nuda are;: it being once estab- 
lished that certain names are synonyms, it 
comes at once impossible that any Congress 
should alter their status, or change them into 
nomina nuda or seminuda. 
