RULES. 197 



9. The operation of these rules shall be prospective, not 

 retrospective. 



10. The Council wishes to impress upon orchid growers the 

 desirability of obtaining drawings or photographs of all new 

 and certified orchids, and of depositing such dravvings in the 

 library of the society, for reference. 



11. The Council also desires to remind cultivators of the 

 great importance of preserving specimens for future reference 

 and comparison, and suggests that, wherever practicable, speci- 

 mens should be sent for this purpose to the Director of the 

 Royal Gardens, Kew. 



5. PARIS CODE OP BOTANICAL NOMENCLATURE. 



At an international botanical congress held in Paris in 1867, 

 a series of general rules for the nomenclature of plants was 

 adopted, which has been more or less closely followed by bota- 

 nists until the present time. The code assumes that botanical 

 names, like other language, are determined by custom or gen- 

 eral consensus of opinion. It also asserts that the name of 

 a species consists of two inseparable parts, the generic and 

 specific, and that the author of the combination of these two, 

 rather than the author of either part separately, should be 

 quoted as the authority for the complete name of the species. 

 In opposition to these assertions, some botanists now contend 

 (see Caption 6) that the first single name applied to a species 

 should always follow that species, in whatever genus it may be 

 placed, and that the citation of authority following any combi- 

 nation should comprise the name of the person who first used 

 the specific appellation and also the name of the person who 

 placed the given generic and specific appellations together, in 

 case a subsequent combination has occurred. The Paris Code 

 comprises 68 articles, of which only the following are of direct 

 interest here : 



ARTICLE 2. The rules of nomenclature should neither be 

 arbitrary, nor imposed by authority. They must be founded on 

 considerations clear and forcible enough for every one to com- 

 prehend and be disposed to accept. 



