116 



SYSTEMATIC POMOLOGY 



any rule can be devised which will positively 

 prevent it. 



Priority of publication, as defined in Rule 

 3, seems to be the real basis of scientific no- 

 menclature, and to make any exceptions to 

 this rule would be fatal. The fact that the 

 names secondarily given are published and 

 properly brought first to the attention of 

 fruit growers and nurserymen makes them in 

 reality the prior names in the knowledge of 

 the majority of the pomologists. To go back 

 later to the original local and unpublished 

 names would involve hardship to the public, 

 and the rights of the horticultural public 

 must always stand above any local jealousies 

 or sentiment attaching to an unpublished 

 name. 



The direction here given, that "an author 

 publishing a new variety should use the name 

 given by the originator, or by the introducer, 

 or else should choose the oldest discoverable 

 local name," ougnt to be emphasized to the 

 utmost, but it never becomes more than a 

 piece of good advice. If the "author" pub- 

 lishing a new variety sees fit to disregard it, 

 and if he has at the same time the discretion 

 to stay inside the rules on other points, the 



