352 PHYTOGRAPHY. 



717. The Fixation and Precision of Names. The name of a 



plant is fixed by publication, and takes its date from the tune 

 when it is thus made known to botanists. 



718. A genus or other group is published when its name 

 and characters (or the differences between it and all other such 

 groups) are printed in some book, journal, or other adequate 

 vehicle of publication, which is placed on public sale, or in 

 some equivalent way is distributed among or within the reach 

 of botanists. A printed name without characters, and charac- 

 ters without name, do not amount to publication. 1 



719. A species is not named unless it has assigned to it both 

 a generic and a specific name. It is not published until it is 

 made known, by name and characters (or by name along with 

 sufficient information as to its characteristics), in the manner 

 aforesaid. (718.) Adequate distribution, among botanists and 

 public herbaria, by sale or otherwise, of a collector's or distrib- 

 utor's specimens, accompanied by printed or autograph tickets, 

 bearing the date of the sale or distribution (that is, publication 

 by named Exsiccatce in place of printed descriptions) , is held to 

 be tantamount to publication. 2 



720. Characters, references to date and place of publication, 

 and the like, belong to bibliography or particular phytography, 

 not to nomenclature ; but proper identification of names requires 

 that the name of the author and the time and medium of pub- 

 lication should be taken into account. Anterior to the binomial 

 nomenclature, the botanical name of the common tall Buttercup 

 was " Ranunculus pratensis erectus acris" according to Bauhin, 

 in his Pinax, p. 179. Under the new nomenclature, which re- 

 duced the specific part of the plant's name to one word, this 

 became Ranunculus acris in Linnaeus, Species Plantarum (ed. 1), 

 p. 554 ; and a brief character gave its distinctions. In later 

 works it has been more fully described, in some illustrated by 

 figures. The citation of these works arranged in chronological 

 order (or in some order) , with reference to volume, page, and 

 in some cases figures, is the bibliography of the plant. 8 A bot- 



1 Names may be communicated, in manuscript or otherwise, by the pro- 

 pounder to an author who may make them known by publication ; but the 

 date of the genus or other group is that of actual publication. 



2 This does not cover all the conditions of publication, since it does not 

 specify the characters (and the same may be said of. a published figure, 

 with analyses) ; but, on the other hand, it conveys to the competent person 

 receiving the same all this information and more : so that it should carry 

 the rights of true publication as against any author to whom such names 

 are or should be known. That is, such are not in the category of " unpub- 

 lished names," which generally ought to be left untouched. 



* For good examples of bibliography, see such detailed works as De- 



