32 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 



or whatever its rank as species or variety. Many of our plants have 

 originally been described in genera other than those now accepted, 

 and many were at first supposed to be species which are now regarded 

 as varieties, or the reverse of this. The method adopted of citing 

 the original author of the specific or varietal name the only perma- 

 nent portion of the binomial in a parenthesis, tells us who first 

 named the plant, while the added name behind the parenthesis, shows 

 who first brought the names together in their present combination. 

 This method has, with slight modifications, been generally adopted 

 by zoologists, and by students of fungi, algae, lichens and mosses, 

 and its general use in botany tends to bring all biological nomen- 

 clature into harmony. A few examples will suffice to indicate 

 the method. Our mistletoe was first described by Pursh, who called 

 it Viscum flavescens, not regarding it generically distinct from the 

 mistletoe of Europe, Viscum album of Linnaeus. Subsequently 

 Nuttall detected certain well-marked differences, and founding a new 

 genus Phoradendron, called our plant Phoradendron flavescens. We 

 therefore write Phoradendron flavescens (Pursh), Nutt. The younger 

 Michaux named the black-barked sugar maple Acer nigrum ; Torrey 

 and Gray, determining that it was but a variety of the ordinary 

 sugar or rock maple, described it, in their Flora of North America, 

 as Acer saccharinum, L., var. nigrum, which we write, Acer sacchari- 

 num, L., var. nigrum (Michx. f.), T. & G. In ordinary parlance we 

 do not attempt to recall the authors of the names, but use only the 

 Latin designations. It is, however, quite essential for exactness that 

 the authors' names be published. The names used in the last three 

 sub-kingdoms are determined in the same way, and the catalogue is, 

 therefore, uniform in this respect. 



