1895. ] _ The Nomenclature Question. 319 
tutes.a good name? The only man who can attempt with 
any hope of success to reform Dr. Gray’s nomenclature is 
one who is greater than he and can overcome the weight of 
his authority by a yet greater, and none such has yet at- 
tempted it. If the American botanists would but recognize 
this principle, and get over their soreness on the point of Dr. 
Gray’s personal system, there would soon be sufficient stabil- 
ity in nomenclature. 
In other affairs of life a reform to have hope of success must 
proceed by building upon whatever already exists that is 
fixed and good. A reformer who wishes to reform by upset- 
ting everything, good and bad, and beginning all over again 
upon a plan of his own, is called an anarchist, and the senti- 
ment of the community is against him. A system of reform 
of nomenclature which would abandon the most fixed names 
if they do not fit its rules, savors of this spirit. We are told, 
however, that the proposed system has been tried by other 
Sciences and is a success. But I am inclined to suspect either 
that the blessed peace which we are assured broods over the 
camp of the ornithologists, ichthyologists, herpetologists, e¢ 
al., is not so perfect as it seems, or else that the conditions 
there are somewhat different from ours. 
The solution of the difficulty seems to me to lie primarily 
in treating nomenclature on the known principles of persist- 
ence of language as far as these go, accepting what is fixed 
as final, endeavoring to settle doubtful cases by following the 
best usage, and by trying through congresses, etc., to frame 
uniform rules for the future. This would give us a system 
which, if not consistent or at first stable, would be conven- 
ient and certain to be successful. 
The real trouble, I believe, lies in the virtual exhaustion 
of the field of North American botany. The plants have 
been nearly all described and well described, so there is noth- 
ing left to do except to describe them over again in new 
Ways, or under new titles. If one will persist in threshing 
Over and over old straw, and finds only an occasional kernel 
of grain as a reward, it is not unnatural that he should find 
amusement and even see importance in piling the heaps of 
Straw in new and striking patterns. The subject seems to 
Share with millstones and the human heart the necessity for 
grinding itself when it has nothing else to grind. Systematic 
botany is too conservative in its methods, especially among 
