98 AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST 
next following 1753 during which such Linnean trivial names as 
Alisma Plantago aquatica was displaced by the name Alisma Plan- 
tago. His Salvia africana coerulea cut down, by some to Salvia 
Africana, by others to Salvia coerulea. Scandix Pecten Veneris 
appeared as Scandix Pecten, or else Scandix, the generic name being 
suppressed and Pecten adopted as generic, the binomial as we call 
it, became Pecten Veneris. Our subjoined list of 97 names shows 
how far this correcting and even suppressing of Linnzean ternary 
names was carried, though it does not much more than begin to 
show the number of reputable, and even most distinguished botanists, 
that have had part in this work, either as creating the new and 
truly binary names, or else as adopting such improvements when 
made. 
One practice some of these forefathers indulged in which was 
wrong, as being in violation of one of the very fundamentals 
of all science; if they substituted for the ternary name Veronica 
Anagallis aquatica the binary Veronica Anagallis, they credited the 
new name to Linneeus. It was a false credit, and falsehood is the 
deadliest enemy of science, never anywhere or in any form to be 
tolerated. The practice of Linnezus shows that he might easily 
have made also besides Veronica Anagallis aquatica a Veronica 
Anagallis himself, but the author who suppressed the former and 
created the latter, should be credited with Veronica Anagallis, and 
the name Veronica Anagallis aquatica I,. ought to appear only as a 
synonym. ‘This needs no argument. ‘The simple fact that truth- 
fulness demands it is enough. 
There are Linnean names of the several-worded kind that do 
not admit of such substitution as will leave one of the words in 
place. It would have been impossible for any of our forefathers to 
have divided, and thrown away one half of such a trivial name as 
Noli me tangere , though no one observing the sheer lack in many 
twentieth century botanists, of common sense as to nomenclature, 
would be surprised to see /mpatiens Noli tangere cut down to /mpa- 
licens Noli or Impatiens tangere, either of which, no matter how 
absurd, would pass muster with the creators and defenders of the 
codes. A less intellectual epoch than this would have seen the need 
of rejecting completely the phrase xoli me tangere as impossible, and 
of creating a name new in every syllable, as, for example, /mpatiens 
penduliflora. 
In the latter part of the nineteenth century, when Linnzeus had 
