108 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [ AUGUST 
but recommend them earnestly to their colleagues for the establish- 
ment of a generally intelligible nomenclature, and particularly one 
now familiar in the applied branches. Attention is especially called 
to the close similarity between these rules and those governing the 
nomenclature of the Kew Index, the only important difference being 
the priority rule for species. This will affect a difference only in case 
of species that have been transferred from one genus to another with a 
concomitant alteration in the specific name, a class not large when 
compared with all other specific and generic names, upon which there 
will be practical agreement between the Berlin staff and those of the 
leading English establishments, not to mention the conservative ele- 
ment in other countries. 
The work of the Berlin Garden and its museum needs no encomium. 
Certainly no other continental institution has in recent years exercised 
such a wide and lasting influence upon phanerogamic classification. 
On this account, recommendations emanating from its learned staff are 
entitled to careful consideration in all parts of the world. ‘The rules 
may be translated as follows 
1. In the choice of names for the genera and species of plants, the fun- 
damental principle of priority is usually to be maintained. The years 
1753-4 are regarded as the point of departure in the determination of 
priority. 
2. A generic name, however, shall be dropped if it has not been in general 
use during fifty years reckoned from the date of its establishment. Never- 
theless, if, in consequence of the Lozs de /a nomenclature of the year 1868, it 
has been again restored in the preparation of monographs or larger floras, it 
shall remain current with us. 
3. In order to secure uniformity in the group designations of the vegetable 
kingdom we wish to bring into use the following endings: series shall end in 
-ales, families in -acee, subfamilies in -oidev, tribes in -ew, subtribes in -77@ 
The endings are added to the stem of the generic name; thus, Pandan(us) 
-ales; Rumex, Rumic(is)-oidez ; fan Asclepiad(is)-ez ; Metastelma 
Metastelmat(is)-i ine ; Madi(a)-inz 
4. Regarding the gender of eT names, we follow in classical designa- 
tions the correct grammatical usage, while in later names and barbarisms 
the usage in the Vatiurlichen Pflanzenfamilien holds good. Changes in end- 
ing or in other parts of the word ought not asa rule be made. However, 
notorious errors in designations derived from proper names must be removed; 
er such as Coniferz, Cruciferae, Umbelliferae, Palmae, etc., rightly 
continue to stan 
