2(108 



NAMA 



NAMES— NOMENCLATURE 



or uiululato. villous, sessile: fls. violet-bhio in small 

 lator.U clusters that are iijtgregatrd into a lonn terminal 

 spike or narrow thyrse; sepals oblong-lanceolate; 

 corolla tubular-funnelfonn, about .'oin- Ion;;. Calif. 

 May-July. L II. H. 



NAMES AND NOMENCLATURE. Every plant 

 that is known and recorcieil must have a name or 

 appellation; the system or scheme of naming is known 

 as nomenclature ipronouneed no-mcndature). 



It is now the univers;il custom with botanists to 

 name a plant with two words, — one designatinp; the 

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

 tinguishing the particular plant from all other [ilants 

 in the group. The genus or group may be I^tilms, Ihe 

 raspbcrries, blackberries and dewberries; the i)artic\i- 

 lar species of Rubus may be rillosus; and the coiniilcte 

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

 fore, that this two-word or binomial apjiellation both 

 classifies and names the plant. When other species of 

 Rubus are discovered, they receive special, or specific, 

 names in the genus, as R. fromlnxu,^, R. aUcghcnknsi'f, 

 R. Mitlspaughii. 



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- 

 tingui.'th one name from another the author's name goes 

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

 "Rijhun iriU/muH, Ait.", mean.s that the name Riihiix 

 villomus was mafle by Aiton. Hotanists know when and 

 what Aiton wrote: therefore they can trace the name 

 and description to its source. "Rvhus viUosus, Gray," 



may be a very ditTerent jtlant ; but only the oldest name, 

 if it is the i)n>i)er or accepteil genus, may stand, and all 

 other names become synonyms or duplicates. It ha])- 

 pens that the Rubus rilloaus. Cray, is not a si)ecies so 

 named by Cray in ignorance of .Viton's name, but a 

 mi.sapplicalion of .Viton's R. rillosu.i to another species 

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

 stood from the narrative below. 



It would ..seem to the laymait to be the simplest 

 nuitter t(i make the name Rutins rillosus — I'illotsui! is only 

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

 serious undertaking. II 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 jilant is nameless. VV^hen 

 the botanist ftnds a plant that he suspects to be now, 

 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 nuist give it a name that has not 

 been vised 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 

 descriijtion in some ])ublication of recognized standing; 

 and once published, it is established in botanical litera- 

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

 .41ways 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 tlescription 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 ])lant. A jiicture will helj), and illustrations are 

 often jjublishcd 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)2 inches wide and 16? g inches long; and only one 

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

 In ea.se 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 s]iecimens 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 s[)ecimen 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, imrticularly 

 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 stu<ient of one special group may go over 

 them to find the plants that f.all within the range of his 

 .studies; or if the givi^n accumulation is interesting and 

 valuabli^ in it.sclf, some student may study it as a col- 

 lection and publish on it, describing new species, adding 

 to the decriptions of recognized species, and correct- 

 ing ranges and habitats. S|)ecimens and even whole 

 collections are sometimes loaned to reputable students 

 of special groups. These specimens are always to be 



