PLAN OF THE CATALOGUE. 17 



IX. The abbreviations used for names of authors will be 

 found in Gray's Manual, Gray's Structural Botany, or in Brit- 

 ton's Catalogue of New Jersey Plants. Other abbreviations 

 either require no explanation, or may be found in any manual 

 or text-book. The abbreviation " R. & B,., " as may be readily 

 supposed, refers to the authors of this Catalogue. 



X, The geographical nomenclature follows that of the map 

 of Mount Desert Island published in June, 1893, to accompany 

 this work. Its nomenclature is based on certain universal and 

 well recognized laws of nomenclature, among the chief of which 

 are the regard for priority, for firmly established custom, for 

 good taste, and for avoidance of unnecessary confusion. The 

 rules adopted by the U. S. Board on Geographic Names have 

 been followed as far as possible as to form, in order to secure 

 conformity with the Coast Survey Charts and other govern- 

 ment publications. Of the changes caused by these rules, the 

 only one that is likely to be commonly noticed is the avoid- 

 ance of the possessive whenever this can be done without de- 

 stroying the euphony of the name or changing the descriptive 

 application. In applying this rule, therefore, the possessive s 

 has been retained only where it appeared to be necessary for 

 euphony or to avoid misunderstanding, usually where the name 

 is a Christian name, and sometimes where for special reasons or 

 on account of peculiar usage it seemed impracticable to do 

 otherwise. In all cases, however, where the possessive s is 

 retained, the possessive apostrophe has been dropped, since the 

 word should no longer be considered as possessive in sense, but 

 as a word in itself. 



