CRiTlCAIv NOTES 33 1 



CRITICAL NOTES ON NEW AND OLD GENERA 

 OF PLANTS.— III. 



BY J. A. NIEUWLAND. 



Chlorophyllum. 



A rather unusual oversight, such in fact as one would scarcely 

 expect in modern biological nomenclature is the case of the fungus 

 name Cbloropliylhmi. Raiinesque on occasion had published a 

 name and afterward quite unaware apparently or forgetful of 

 his own previous publication thereof used it a second time for 

 an altogether different plant.' In volume 9, p. 172 of the North 

 American Flora, ^ Murrill founded a new genus of fungi from 

 Guiana on Neurophyllum viride Pat. which he called Chlorophyllum, 

 and in the same work, volume 10, p. 64-' there appears another 

 Chlorophylum Mass.'' a plant not only in the same family but 

 also the type from the same country. It is perfectly evident 

 that in a work as well prepared as the North American Flora the 

 two can not be expected to merit survival under the same name. 

 That of Massey seems to possess priority and another designation 

 is demanded for Murrill's Chlorophyllum. Even in mycology 

 where the nomenclature has not been as exactly and exhaustively 

 systematized by any means as in the case of the ferns and 

 phanerogams, exemplified by the Index of Christensen and Kew, 

 one could hardly have looked for a mistake like the above men- 

 tioned, and in the Flora at that. Such oversights are, however, 

 easily made, and without blame to any extent on the part of 

 either author or editor, so difficult a matter is the perfect editing 

 of a work of the scope and pretensions of this Flora. 



The name Chlorophyllum is a name especially for a chloro- 

 phylless plant, nor even a real leafy one is hardly a good one for 

 either, nor is the use of a name already used in botany as the 

 latin equivalent of the fimctioning photosynthetic "organ" of 

 plant food elaboration to be recommended as applicable to 

 systematic entity or genus. To replace the antedated name 



' See Am. Mid. Nat. I, p. 238 (1910). 



^ Feb. 3 (1910). 



^ July 28 (1914). 



^ Ma.ssey, Kew. Bull. p. 136 (1898). 



