1896. ] The Nomenclature Question. 83 
Cnicus is found to embrace forty-two species and varieties. 
Of these, Gray is given as authority for no less than thirty- 
two; but by looking through the synonymy it appears that 
fifteen of the names, or nearly fifty per cent., had been given 
previously by other authors, as Nuttall, Muhlenberg, Hooker, 
Engelmann and De Candolle. Thus Carduus undulatus Nutt., 
1818, becomes Cuicus undulatus Gray, 1874; Cnicus discolor 
Muhl., 1804, becomes C. altissimus var. atscolor Gray, 1883, 
etc. The same practice may be observed in Watson’s treat- 
ment of Lesquerella elsewhere, in which twenty-four out of 
thirty-five names credited to him had been previously given 
by other authors. All right and title of the original discov- 
erer of a species thus disappears. 
Another step in the working of this principle is shown in 
the recently issued fascicle 1 of volume 1, part 1 of the Syn- 
optical Flora, where the transferred species or varieties are 
followed by the abbreviations ‘‘n. sp.” or ‘'n. var.” as the 
fase may be. Thus we learn that Clematis Pitcheri var. Bige- 
lovit is a *‘n, var.” notwithstanding the fact that C. Bigelovit 
Was described by Torrey in 1856! C. Prtcherdi var. filifera, 
another ‘‘n, var.” was described as C. filifera by Bentham in 
1848. C. verticillaris var. Columbiana Gray, n. var. 1895, 
ee described originally by Nuttall in 1834 and was made a 
Eschscholtzianum Robinson, n. sp. 1895, is Aphragmus Esch- 
‘holtzianus Andrz., 1824, while Braya humilis Robinson, n. 
*P 1895, is Stsymbrium humile C. A. Méyer, 1831. It is 
unnecessary to multiply examples. To my mind it does not 
he Probable that the practice of placing one’s name after a 
te hg likely to be more abused by the advocates of sound 
conn nnature than it has been in the past by the adherents of 
sp.” _. It has usually been the custon to append ‘‘n. 
a the first time as new to science, although the same abbre- 
ations have occasionally been used where it has been found 
Inst give a new name to a previously described plant, 
“nces of which may be found in this same fascicle of the 
Me tie Flora. This is the usage throughout the whole 
If thie 4 biology » without, so far as I can find an exception. 
