170 The Botanical Gazette. [June, 
anists, for the reason that once established and pretty gener- 
ally recognized, it would avoid the great mass of synonymy, 
which is being heaped like an incubus upon the science. I 
must express surprise that Dr. Britton has not considered it 
his duty to publish the last written words of Dr. Gray which 
were addressed to him upon this subject and which expressed 
his positive opinions upon this point. 
There is nothing whatever of an ethical character inherent 
in a name through any priority of publication or position 
which should render it morally obligatory upon anyone to ac- 
cept one name rather than another; otherwise it would be 
applicable or true as well in the case of ordinal names, mor- 
phological names, teratological, and every other form of 
name, to which now no one feels himself bound to apply the 
law of priority. The application of this law as at present 
practiced by many botanists, which would make it the one 
great law of botanical nomenclature, before which every other 
must yield regardless even of common sense, is a mere form 
of fetichism exemplified in science. Many instances of the 
application of this law are not science but are rather supet- 
stition. 
February 22, 1892. 
The North American Lejeunezx. 
F. STEPHANI. 
are four species, which Taylor published as having comé 
from Cincinnati, while they had been collected on the eset? 
of the Amazon, near the city of Pard, which Taylor beens 
to be a place in the vicinity of Cincinnati. These four spe 
ies are Lej. cyclostipa, polyphylla, testudinea and longi 
all of which having been described before, now bear = 
names. His Lejeunea calyculata too is merely 
form of Lej. clypeata Schweinitz. There remain on 
lowing species, to which I have added four newly doti 
plants: Lej. trifaria Nees, Lej. Wrightit G., LY: ae 
Steph., Ze. Underwoodii Steph. The North Amer! 
Lejeunee have to be arranged as follows: 
