PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. Ill 



Several of these cases are a return to the older names, and 

 whether they will be adopted by American authorities it is impos- 

 sible to say. 



It remains to consider the one deviation above referred to from 

 the prevailing system of botanical classification, which it has been 

 thought proper to make in the subjoined list of plants. This con- 

 sists in placing the Gymnosperms, here represented only by the single 

 order Coniferce, after the Monocotyledons and next to the Crypto- 

 gams. 



It is not the proper place here to state the already well known 

 grounds upon which this position of the Gymnosperms has been 

 defended. [See American Naturalist, June, 1878, pp. 359 to 378.] 

 It is sufficient to point out that the correctness of this arrangement 

 was recognized by Adrien de Jussieu, and has been repeatedly 

 maintained by later botanists of eminence. The object in adopt- 

 ing it here, however, is not simply because it seems fully justified 

 by the present known characters of plants, for consistently to do 

 this would also require that the Polypetalce be placed before the Mon- 

 ochlamydece (in the descending series,) and that numerous other 

 changes be made. So wide a departure from the existing system 

 would seriously detract from the convenience of the work as a prac- 

 tical aid to the local botanist, and aside from the labyrinth of nice 

 and critical points into which it must inevitably lead, it would not 

 be advisable in the present state of botanical literature. But as 

 the position of the Gymnosperms is the most glaringly inconsistent 

 of ajl the defects of the present so-called Natural System, and as 

 the Coniferoe are represented here by only four genera and seven 

 species, it is evident that no serious objection could arise on the 

 ground of inconvenience, while at the same time it may serve some 

 useful purpose in directing the minds of botanists who may look 

 over the work to the obvious rationality of this classification, and 

 contribute its mite towards awakening them to the recognition of 

 a truth which, I cannot doubt, must sooner or later find expression 

 in all accepted versions of the true order of nature with respect to 

 the vegetable kingdom. 



Common Names. 



I am well aware that in recent times it has become more and 

 more the practice among botanists to eschew all common or popular 

 names of plants. This sentiment I share to a great extent and will 



