84 CALLUNA ATLANTICA. 
early distribution of materials which misfit otherwise have been Ions; 
withheld, and by widely opening herbaria to all competent working 
botanists, and especially to monographers, who should be the last to 
deprecate the system. No doubt, like other good and necessary things, 
it is open to abuse, and may now and then work some hardship. We 
would only remark that, whether on the whole the custom be good or 
bad, it is one for the introduction and maintenance of which we are 
indebted to no single botanist so much as to the founder of the 
1 Prodromus ;' and he, of all others, would be most surprised to learn 
that Lrptocatdis echinatus, etc., Trepocarpus AEthuste, and Eulophus 
Americanus, were Candollean and not Nuttallian genera and species. 
Upon the whole subject we would remark, in brief, that it can hardly 
be supposed that these innovations will pass unquestioned ; that no 
living botanist now stands in such position that he can becomingly set 
aside, mero motu % recognized usages in nomenclature ; that the closing 
volumes of the ' Prodromus,' which for forty years has been most effi- 
cient in establishing these usages, is hardly the proper place for chan- 
m 
ging them ; and that, finally, a Botanical Congress, such as that over 
which, last spring, the distinguished editor of the c Prodromus ' so 
happily presided, would have been a proper body to consult upon sub- 
jects of such delicacy and general interest. 
CALLUNA ATLANTIC A, Seem. 
Professor Asa Gray, in a notice of Dr. Seemann's paper on this 
Heather, published in a recent number of this Journal, says, in regard 
to the biological character on which the author of this species depended 
so much for its specific distinctness : 
" Probably in the station from which these specimens were lately 
transferred, as well as in Iceland and the higher Alps, whence Dr. 
Seemann ha3 the same form, the plant was accustomed to complete 
protection by snow from changes of temperature the whole winter 
through. Unfortunately we have no specimens from Newfoundland, 
and Dr. Seemann does not speak of the Cape Breton, Nova Scotian, or 
New England plants. Upon examinations of these, we do not find 
that the indicated differences in structure f maiulv the naked pedicels, 
