2098 



NAMA 



NAMES NOMENCLATURE 



or undulate, villous, sessile: fls. violet-blue in small 

 lateral clusters that are aggregated into a long terminal 

 spike or narrow thyrse; sepals oblong-lanceolate; 

 corolla tubular-funnelform, about J^in. long. Calif. 

 May- July. L. H. B. 



NAMES AND NOMENCLATURE. Every plant 

 that is known and recorded must have a name or 

 appellation; the system or scheme of naming is known 

 as nomenclature (pronounced no-menclature). 



It is now the universal custom with botanists to 

 name a plant with two words, one designating the 

 genus or group into which it falls, and the other dis- 

 tinguishing the particular plant from all other plants 

 in the group. The genus or group may be Rubus, the 

 raspberries, blackberries and dewberries; the particu- 

 lar species of Rubus may be villosus; and the complete 

 name is therefore Rubus villosus. It will be seen, there- 

 fore, that this two-word or binomial appellation both 

 classifies and names the plant. When other species of 

 Rubus are discovered, they receive special, or specific, 

 names in the genus, as R. frondosus, R. allegheniensis, 

 R. Millspaughii. 



In scientific language, a plant may have only one 

 name. Confusion would arise if it had two or more. 

 But it sometimes happens that two or more persons 

 give a name to the same species (either because unaware 



2430. Some of the cases in which is kept the priceless 

 herbarium of Linnaeus. 



of an earlier name or because the authors regarded a 

 given form of the plant as a distinct species or as 

 separate enough to receive another name), and to dis- 

 tinguish one name from another the author's name goes 

 with the plant-name that he makes. So it comes that 

 "Rubus villosus, Ait.", means that the name Rubus 

 villosus was made by Aiton. Botanists know when and 

 what Aitqn wrote: therefore they can trace the name 

 and description to its source. "Rubus villosus, Gray," 



may be a very different plant; but only the oldest name, 

 if it is the proper or accepted genus, may stand, and all 

 other names become synonyms or duplicates. It hap- 

 pens that the Rubus villosus, Gray, is not a species so 

 named by Gray in ignorance of Alton's name, but a 

 misapplication of Alton's R. villosus to another species 

 than that which Aiton had in hand, as will be under- 

 stood from the narrative below. 



It would seem to the layman to be the simplest 

 matter to make the name Rubus villosus villosus is only 

 a Latin word signifying "hairy;" but, in fact, it is a 

 serious undertaking. It is always considered the mark 

 of a good botanist that he make new names with the 

 greatest caution. In the first place, it is allowable to 

 make a name only when the plant is nameless. When 

 the botanist finds a plant that he suspects to be new, 

 he must exercise all reasonable caution to determine 

 whether anyone in all the world has named it. He must 

 determine its genus, and be able to write a sufficient 

 description of it. He must give it a name that has not 

 been used before in that genus: if any plant has been 

 named Rubus villosus, he cannot give another rubus 

 that name. Then he must publish the name and 

 description in some publication of recognized standing; 

 and once published, it is established in botanical litera- 

 ture and neither he nor anyone else can ever modify it. 

 Always is his own name associated with the name of the 

 plant; and if the name is an error or the description 

 inaccurate, he must take the responsibility so long as 

 botanical literature shall last. 



The description is made for the purpose of enabling 

 anyone to identify the plant. Amongst the hosts of 

 plants, however, the confusion may be so great that 

 even the best description will not positively identify 

 the plant. A picture will help, and illustrations are 

 often published when the plant is first described. But a 

 poor picture may be misleading and thereby be worse 

 than none. Every botanist, therefore, preserves a 

 specimen or specimens as a type of his new species. 

 This specimen is dried, "mounted" or stuck on a sheet 

 of stiff white paper, and laid away in the herbarium. 

 Custom dictates that this sheet of paper shall be about 

 11^ inches wide and 16^ inches long; and only one 

 species is glued on a sheet (see Herbarium, Volume III). 

 In case of dispute, this type specimen is consulted, and 

 it takes precedence over descriptions and pictures. It 

 alone is final, as determining what plant the author 

 meant to designate by the name. Even the author 

 himself cannot ignore or replace the original "type 

 specimen;" it is part of the ethics of the profession that 

 this specimen shall not be destroyed or modified. So 

 it happens that type specimens become increasingly 

 valuable as time goes on. 



The larger part of the new species are "made" or 

 described at the great centers of botanical study, and 

 the specimens are preserved in these public or semi- 

 public collections; but any botanist anywhere may 

 describe a new species, in which case he may send his 

 type specimen or an authentic duplicate of it to one of 

 the great herbaria, where it may be consulted by other 

 students; and at his death his collections are likely to 

 find their way to one of the botanical centers. 



In all the great collections, quantities of unnamed or 

 undetermined specimens may accumulate, particularly 

 from travelers in little-frequented regions. In time, 

 some student of the flora of the region may study these 

 specimens, perhaps finding undescribed species among 

 them; or a student of one special group may go over 

 them to find the plants that fall within the range of his 

 studies; or if the given accumulation is interesting and 

 valuable in itself, some student may study it as a col- 

 lection and publish on it, describing new species, adding 

 to the descriptions of recognized species, and correct- 

 ing ranges and habitats. Specimens and even whole 

 collections are sometimes loaned to reputable students 

 of special groups. These specimens are always to be 



