130 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. [ June, 
done universally, and not always with the right conception of its object. M. 
de Candolle, whose experience gives him a better right to speak than any other 
botanist, has insisted with emphasis that all collections distributed among im- 
portant herbaria should be numbered. The number is not to show the col- 
lector’s systematic reference of the ngnewers and it does not necessarily include 
all his specimens that belong to th sp It designates merely speci- 
mens that belong to the same stock, or such as from locality, date or other cir- 
cumstances, he can with equal certainty assume to be identical with each other 
and true duplicates. The citation of such numbers, fulfilling as it does phytog- 
raphy’s law of brevity, has become very general on the part of authors of 
Floras, ‘teal phs, etc., and every specimen under the same number in other 
herbaria becomes in this way elevated to the rank of a voucher and original of 
a ra ea 
Each vétiende, Angie 6 the first one, of DC. Monogr. Phaner. tabulates 
under collectors’ names in a separate index the numbers of all the specimens 
cited. This Sachibtittn sical the application of authoritative determinations 
to the unnamed material in herbaria. It is to be ho the precedent will be 
followed. Les noms changent, ¢’est inévitable, les numéros seuls subsistent. M. de 
Candolle appeals to the vanity of the collector and assures him ores the names 
of species — their authors have but a precarious existence ; whereas he guar- 
antees mmortality to the numbers of Commerson, Burchell, perlnntin, 
Wydler, “an others. A like distinction may be prophesied for such citations 
aes ST Su 
696; Reverchon Texas Fl. 1618; Patterson Colorado Fl. 154.--Joun Don- 
NELL SMITH. 
So much has been written concerning the methods of preparing specimens 
for the herbarium, that it would seem almost needless to make much addition 
thereto ; but in looking through my own collection of tens of thousands of spe- 
cimens it is a noticeable fact that certain ones strike the eye more forcibly than 
others. If I am examining a western plant I look for Pringle’s or Greene’s Spe 
cimens ; if central United — I want Bebb’s; if southern, I hunt up those 
of Curtiss and Garber; if from New Jersey, I search for a Parker label; and 
n is that rata I I find good er ahd aie specimens made by ‘these 
sacahaat botanists. 
e great value of my herbarium to-day is in the large, abundant and 
ch istic specimens. I have picked up from time to time a great many 
fragments of plants in my travels as mementoes of a journey, or indicative of ® 
locality, but I make it a rule, when I want to show what the plant really is, to 
get as large a specimen as my mounting paper will receive. If the plant is 
small I get several of them, and mount them all on the same sheet, flowering 
and sig specimens side by side, with separate labels giving dates of collec~ 
Seiad te 
not but feel a regret in einai at the type specimens of Nuttall 
and proba of his day, that they are su or representatives ; except that they 
are the original types they would crit hat little value as diviving: the habit 
