382 REVIEWS. 



there is no foundation in classical Latin for either punctua- 

 tion (the points distinguishing words, not phrases) or accen- 

 tuation by signs, and that the distinction between capitals 

 and small letters was made since the dark ages by scholars 

 whom a purist of our day might tax with ignorance of the 

 proper way of writing Latin ; that the object and result of all 

 these and other innovations was greater clearness and pre- 

 cision ; that the question is not at all one of ancient latinity, 

 but of modern usages, both of the philologists and the natu- 

 ralists ; and these have happily modified classical Latin into a 

 medium of greater precision and clearness and better adapted 

 to the needs of science. 



Finally, we have a brief discussion of the question : " When 

 an author has comprehended one genus in another without 

 naming a species, can he be cited for the names of the species 

 which implicitly result from this union ? " The answer he 

 decisively gives is : " This would be neither right nor possible, 

 nor practically convenient. To be correct, one should attrib- 

 ute to an author exactly what he has published. When it is 

 said that the genus B should be united with the genus A, this 

 is not saying that the species of the genus B should be called 

 by such and such names in the genus A. To name them cor- 

 rectly it is necessary to examine them one by one. A glance 

 at the Genera of Bentham and Hooker, or at the works of 

 Baillon, will show how impossible it is to attribute the desig- 

 nation of the species to the authors who have changed the 

 names of the genera, without an explanation under each 

 species." This is illustrated by the supposed case of three 

 genera combined into one, each of which has a species " lanceo- 

 lata " ; by the case of a species " minor " transferred to a genus 

 of which it may be the largest species : and by reference to the 

 state of all large and many small genera, full of obscure, mis- 

 understood, or debatable species, the arrangement and naming 

 of which can be effected only by patient and prolonged study. 

 When this work has not actually been done by the reformers 

 of genera, it should be left to monographers and the editors of 

 Floras. If, by article 45, " a species is not looked upon as 

 named unless it has a generic name as well as a specific one," 



