APPENDIX. 



To Fourth (Pocket) Edition, July, 1900. 



The explorer and the botanist are ever in advance of the 

 nurseryman and cultivator. 



Plants are first found and described, then named and, 

 perhaps, cultivated. In early times the namers of plants 

 were unlimited by rules, so they bestowed names at will. 

 Often a name which had been early conferred and had 

 become well known, was summarily dropped and another 

 supposedly better one given the plant by a later author. 

 Early discoverers and botanists often published their descrip- 

 tions in obscure or sparsely distributed mediums; rediscover- 

 ers of the same plants quite naturally supposed themselves 

 entitled to the credit of original discovery, and of course to 

 the privilege of naming. Another fruitful source of dupli- 

 cation and confusion arises from the fact that authors, from 

 time to time, have fancied that certain plants have been 

 wrongly classified, that they belong to other genera or 

 other species, hence requiring at least a part of the 

 binomial to be changed, involving the coinage 1 of a new 

 name; while other botanists still, have made true discoveries 

 in regard to the proper reference of plants, and the new 

 names they suggest must be admitted to use if properly 

 formed and duly published. Also, increased information 

 concerning groups of plants sometimes requires their divi- 



(105) 



