I/O 



NA rURE 



[December 24, [891 



Gramineae" — the last of the natural orders elaborated 

 for the " Genera Plantarum " : — 



" Much has been done, however, for the elucidation 

 of the order in local Floras. Already at the close 

 of the last century and the commencement of the 

 present one, several Continental botanists proposed 

 new genera for anomalous European grasses ; but 

 these were published in works which entered but 

 little into general circulation, and were overlooked by 

 Beauvois, Persoon, Willdenow, and other systematists. 

 Several of the same genera have since been re-estab- 

 lished, but under other names which have now been so 

 long and so universally adopted, that they must be con- 

 sidered as having acquired a right of prescription to 

 overrule the strict laws of priority. It would indeed be 

 mere pedantry, highly inconvenient to botanists, and so 

 far detrimental to science, now to substitute Blumen- 

 bachia for Sorghum, Fibichia for Cynodon, Santia for 

 Polypogon, or Sieglingia for Triodia." 



It is idle to argue that two or three persons have no 

 right to make laws ; for any corporation, however small, 

 has that right, and is justified in exercising it if it has the 

 power to carry them into effect. But, after all, the main 

 question is, whether the Kew botanists acted in the interest 

 of science in declining to be guided by the rules passed 

 by another body of botanists ; and I think any unpreju- 

 diced outsider would agree that they did, and that the 

 course events have taken has strengthened their posi- 

 tion. 



It should be remembered that most of the advocates of 

 priority, and especially those advocates of almost un- 

 qualified priority, such as Dr. Kuntze, have no respon- 

 sibility beyond literary accuracy, and even that cannot be 

 maintained for such uncertain quantities as orders, 

 genera, and species of plants. On the other hand, the 

 botanists of Kew have grave responsibilities towards the 

 general public. It is not too much to say that Kew is 

 almost exclusively responsible for the botanical nomen- 

 clature current in gardens, and in English and colonial 

 literature dealing with plants or the products of plants, 

 to say nothing of the vast named collections at Kew. 

 The labour of renaming the plants in accordance with 

 the investigations of successive reformers would have 

 been as nothing to the folly of doing so, though it would 

 have been a herculean task, and a recurring task, as each 

 older name was disinterred. The idea of giving a gar- 

 dener, or a manufacturer, or any person interested in 

 vegetable products, one of these resuscitated generic 

 names with a specific name tacked on to it by a person 

 who has done nothing else except put his initials to it, is 

 too absurd. All the literature connected with the plant 

 is under another name, all the figures likewise, and, one 

 might add, all the persons almost who know anything 

 about the plant, know it by the old name. Yet, forsooth^ 

 we are asked to sacrifice everything that belongs to the 

 present for the sake of a " principle " that involves endless 

 confusion, and feeds the vanity of the living more than it 

 honours the dead. Of course priority in current work is 

 a totally different thing ; but if it had been the intention 

 of the promoters of the new " Index to Plant Names," on 

 which Mr. Daydon Jackson and his assistants have been 

 engaged for some ten years, to restore these old generic 

 names, and enumerate the species thereunder, it would 

 now be necessary to cite some 30,000 of them as the com- 

 NO. I I 56, VOL. 45] 



binations of O. K. (Dr. Kuntze). It is no disparagement 

 to the literary researches of Dr. Kuntze to say that Mr. 

 Jackson was in a position to do this infinitely better than 

 Kuntze, if it had been desirable to do it. But it was 

 never a part of the plan that the compiler should reduce 

 synonymy, and amend the nomenclature of plants. His 

 task has been to prepare an index, and as such its value 

 will far exceed any attempts at finality in synonymy. To 

 have proceeded on the lines of Steudel would have only 

 resulted in the addition of many thousands of names 

 devoid of all authority. Nevertheless, Dr. Kuntze, being 

 ^o impressed with the importance of his precious names, 

 declares that the index will have no scientific value unless 

 it include the 30,000 specific names appropriated by 

 " O. K." without more labour than a mere transfer. Dr. 

 Kuntze worked at Kew for several years, and enjoyed the 

 usual privileges of the establishment, and the exceptional 

 privilege of consultmg the index in question ; and he now 

 very magnanimously dedicates a genus to the compiler, and 

 patronizingly tells him he hopes he will take proper advant- 

 age of the researches and superior wisdom of the author. 



The extent to which these changes have been made may 

 be gathered from the author's own summary, in which he 

 states that he has reduced 151 genera; separated off 6 

 genera; re-named 122 genera, because they bore names 

 homonymous with other genera ; restored 952 genera in 

 accordance with the laws of priority ; and re-named up- 

 wards of 30,000 species belonging to these genera ! How 

 he justifies these changes may be learnt from a few ex- 

 amples, selected to illustrate the various extraordinary 

 devices employed by a writer who professes to be ani- 

 mated by a sincere desire to reform and consohdate 

 botanical nomenclature. We may waive for the moment 

 another phase of the question — how far can botanists 

 accept these identifications, even if they are prepared to 

 accept the principle ? Astragalus, a genus of more than 

 a thousand species, is to be superseded by Tragacantha, 

 because the latter name was published by Linnaeus in his 

 earlier crude " Systema " (1735), though in his revised and 

 improved work he preferred and employed the former. 

 Kuntze says, in fact, that no author can be permitted to 

 revoke any previously published name of his own making, 

 any more than those of another person ; and accordingly 

 he transfers page after page of names from Astragalus to 

 Tragacantha, with the appended authority, " O. K." Other 

 j familiar large genera treated in the same way are : Erica^ 

 which becomes Ericodes, on an even less tenable ground \ 

 Pelargonium has to cede to G cranio sperinum ; and Clema- 

 tis receives an additional syllable, and in future we must 

 say Clematitis. Recent authors have combined Rhodo- 

 dendron and Azalea under the former, but Kuntze now 

 gives them all names under the latter. Proceeding to ex- 

 amples of more far-fetched changes, it may be noted that 

 Cleistanthiis is to be Kaluhaburunghos, though it was only 

 the other day that Dr. Trimen discovered that a plant in 

 Herrmann's herbarium, bearing this name, which was 

 taken up by Linnseus in his " Flora Zeylanica," was the 

 same as Cleistanthus acuminatus. Dr. Trimen also 

 identified Gaedawakka as of the same origin with Chceto- 

 carpus, therefore Kuntze restores the former. Another 

 excuse for changing names is the existence of two of the 

 same derivation. Thus Glauciuni cannot be tolerated by 

 the side of Glaux, and Kuntze takes the opportunity of 



