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1905] OLSSON-SEFFER—PH YTOGEOGRAPHIC NOMENCLATURE 185 
by individual monographers following certain general principles, 
which should be applied with all possible generality. Festina lente 
is the maxim into which we might condense the prevalent, but per- 
haps not yet outspoken condemnation of the tendency to drown our 
science in a torrent of unpronounceable so-called international terms, 
which cannot but embarrass the student, render the subject less 
accessible and more difficult to handle, and be exasperating to lovers 
of a clear, consistent, and uniform nomenclature. 
Emphasis must also be laid upon the manner in which a term 
comprises the idea it is to convey to the reader. In systematic 
biology it is now held that a name need not contain any reference to 
the subject it represents, and may be wholly meaningless. This 
would hardly be convenient, however, in a system of terminology. 
The limitation of human memory makes it important that the term 
or name employed in a descriptive science should not be merely a 
name, but also associate in one form or another our thought with the 
subject we are discussing. In making new terms or in discriminating 
between already existing ones we should bear this in mind. It is 
just as easy to coin a name of this kind as it is to make a meaningless 
one. There might be a tendency to attribute too much importance 
to the meaning of a name, but all things considered it seems easier 
to remember a term that at once conveys to our mind the conception 
it stands for. 
It has been recommended by several writers that we ought to 
avoid having names that are already used in geology or some other 
science nearly related to phytogeography. It stands to reason that 
such a course is neither absolutely necessary nor very advisable. 
Although we speak of stratification in connection with sedimentary 
processes in dynamic geology, it does not follow that the term strati- 
fication could not be used in plant geography to designate the division 
of a plant community into strata, without implying any ambiguity 
or causing any confusion. Objection has been made in regard to 
‘certain terms such as formation and province, the former word being 
used in geology, the latter in a political sense. If we were consistent, 
a great number of names which have been used for a long time in 
botany ought to be ruled out, because they are also used in zoology, 
Or vice versa, as anatomy, cytology, heliotropism, parasitism. Any 
