EXPLANATION. 



To excuse our faults, often blunders, and occa- 

 sionally stupidity, we, the sacred as the profanes, we 

 quote the classic phrase : 



" Quandoque bonus Homerus dormitat." " Sometimes even the 

 good Homer nods." 



What I want to come at with this preliminary re- 

 mark, is that /, who am apt to find " atoms in other 

 people's eyes, I cannot see " a B&otian monument " 

 of stupidity in mine, e. g, last year I got an electro- 

 typed species of cactus named "Anhalonium 



fasuratum, and I wrote the specific name prismaticum. 

 A blind man could not see the difference of the plants, 

 but could feel it, and yet it has taken me since a year, 

 and seeing the plant (and name) almost every day 



to discover my ? I cannot find a name adequate 



for that idiotic oversight and no chance to justify my- 

 self. 1 cannot say, as we often do, " It is my man's 

 fault." This is no man's fault but a biped but an ass ! 



Some, charitable people, will probably say: that old 



