NA TURE 



241 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1894. 



THE KEW INDEX OF PLANT-NAMES. 

 Index Keiveitsis plantarum phanerogamarum nomina et 

 synonyma otimitan generujn et specieriun a linnaeo 

 usque ad annuvi mdccclxxxv complectens nomine 

 recepto auctore patria ujiicuique plantae subjectis. 

 Sumptibus Caroli Robert! Darwin, ductu et consilio 

 Joseph! D. Hooker, confecit B. D. Jackson. Fasciculi 

 II. (Oxonii : E prelo Clarendoniano, mdcccxciii.) 



THE appearance in rapid succession of the first two 

 fasciculi forming the first volume of this splendid 

 work, to be fittingly known to all time as the " Index 

 Kewensis," is an event of supreme importance not only to 

 the widely limited section of the scientific world which 

 is professedly botanical, but also to the much wider circle 

 of those who are interested in plants, whether this be 

 from their more strictly technical side as the source of 

 economic products, or from their more general and 

 popular one, as objects of pleasure in cultivation and 

 decoration. With the completion of the work in the 

 second volume, which we are glad to know is not likely 

 to be delayed beyond the current year, everyone will 

 have within reach a book of reference in which may be 

 found the correct name, the synonymy, the authority for 

 the name, and the title of the work in which it is first 

 published, along with an indication of the native country 

 of any flowering plant described before the end of the 

 year 1885. 



It is to Charles Darwin we owe primarily this valu- 

 able work. In a short preface to the first fasciculus. 

 Sir Joseph Hooker gives the following concise narrative 

 of its origin : 



" Shortly before his death Mr. Darwin informed me of 

 his intention to devote a considerable sum in aid or 

 furtherance of some work of utility to biological science ; 

 and to provide for its completion, should this not be 

 accomplished during his lifetime. He further informed 

 me that the difficulties he had experienced in accurately 

 designating the many plants which he had studied, and 

 ascertaining their native countries, had suggested to him 

 the compilation of an index to the names and authorities 

 of all known flowering plants and their countries, as a 

 work of supreme importance to students of systematic 

 and geographical botany, and to horticulturists, and as a 

 fitting object of the fulfilment of his intentions. 



" I have only to add that, at his request, I undertook 

 to direct and supervise such a work ; and that it is being 

 carried out at the herbarium of the Royal Gardens, 

 Kew, with the aid of the staff of that establishment." 



Everyone who has had dealings with plants will have 

 realised the difficulties referred to by Mr. Darwin, and will 

 welcome the issue of the " Index Kewensis " to which his 

 munificence has given birth, and will congratulate Sir 

 Joseph Hooker and Mr. Daydon Jackson on the result 

 of their fifteen years' labour as the instruments through 

 which the practical wish of Mr. Darwin is in process of 

 being carried out. In passing, it is not uninteresting, 

 from the point of view of history, to note the association 

 of the name of Darwin with this Index. The biological 

 sciences, whilst owing an eternal debt of gratitude to 

 Linnaeus for the order which he brought out of their pre- 

 ceding chaos, and for the binomial nomenclature his 

 NO. T263, V^T,. 49] 



genius so deftly constructed as an alphabet of system, 

 have reason to regret the retarding influence on their 

 progressive development of the dogma of constancy of 

 species which his scholasticism tacked on to his nomen- 

 clature, and which the nomenclature served to per- 

 petuate. From the trammels of this dogma the genius 

 and work of Darwin gave to biology final emancipation, 

 and now by his forethought and munificence this 

 enumeration of genera and species is being provided, the 

 foundation of which rests on the enduring portion of the 

 work of the great Swedish naturalist. 



It is impossible to emphasise too strongly the value of 

 the book before us. The most recent work of similar 

 kind is the " Nomenclator Botanicus" of Steudel. But 

 this was completed in 1841, and since that date the 

 activity of botanists and the exploration of the world's 

 surface has added so enormously to the known plants, 

 that for practical purposes Steudel's Nomenclator has 

 been for long out of date. The "Index Kewensis " is not, 

 however, cast on quite the same lines as Steudel's work, 

 and possesses valuable features absent from it. The 

 Nomenclator was confessedly a critical botanical book, 

 expressing the views of the limitation and relationship 

 of genera and species held by the author, and conse- 

 quently new names on the authority of Steudel occur 

 throughout. The " Index Kewensis" makes no such pro- 

 fession. It takes the literature as it existed at the end 

 of the year 1885, and from it is compiled, in conformity 

 with certain definite guiding principles of plant-naming, 

 the correct nomenclature, based, so far as the limitation 

 of genera and species is concerned, upon the work of the 

 most competent and trustworthy writers. The " Genera 

 Plantarum" of Bentham and Hooker gives the standard 

 of limitation of genera, and for species the conclusions 

 of monographers and recognised authorities in the 

 different groups supply the basis for the synonymy. The 

 Index is therefore essentially a literary work carried out 

 under effective botanical supervision, and the circum- 

 stances surrounding its production are most favourable. 

 No one more qualified for this detailed work than Mr. 

 Daydon Jackson, by his extensive knowledge of botanical 

 literature and critical judgment, could have been found; 

 in Sir Joseph Hooker the work has the supervision of the 

 most experienced systematic botanist of the day ; and 

 Kew, the natural birthplace of a British book dealing 

 with all flowering plants, affords unrivalled facilities for 

 the investigation involved in such a work. 



We have said the " Index Kewensis "gives the correct 

 name of all plants described before the end of the year 

 1885. This brings up the much-discussed question of 

 what is the correct name of a plant.? Under what rules 

 is it to be fixed.'' In its bearing on this question the 

 Index appears most opportunely, and it may be regarded 

 as the manifesto of the working British systematic 

 botanists upon the vexed subject of plant-nomenclature ; 

 and a thoroughly practical one it is. Briefly the guiding 

 rules of the Index are these :— The starting point for 

 genera is the first edition of the " Systema " of Linnaeus, 

 published in 1735 ! *^he starting point for species is the 

 first edition of the " Species Plantarum "of Linnsus, pub- 

 lished in 1753 ; the correct name is that given by the 

 author who first placed the plant in its proper genus. 

 There is a soundness in these principles which should 



M 



