814 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK.  [1887, 
wrong genus, should supersede by its specific half a 
wellauthentionted and legitimate name. And I am 
sure that you will not talke it amiss when I say that 
very long experience has made it clear to me that 
this business of determining rightful names is not so 
simple and mechanical as to younger botanists it 
seems to be, but is very full of pitfalls. I trust it is 
no personal feeling which suggests the advice that it 
is better to leave such rectifications for monographs 
and comprehensive works, or at least to make quite 
sure of the ground. 
We look to you and to such as yourself, placed at 
well-furnished botanical centres, to do your share of 
conscientious work and to support right doctrines. So 
I may proceed to say that, upon the recognized princi- 
ples since the adoption of the Candollian code, your 
name of Conioselinum bipinnatum, even if founded 
in fact, would be inadmissible and superfluous. B 
a corollary of the rule that priority of publication 
fixes the name, taken along with the fact a plant-name 
is of two parts, generic and specific, it follows that in 
any case, Conioselinum Canadense is the prior name 
for those who hold to the genus Conioselinum. I 
have laid down what I take to be the correct view as 
to this, in my “Structural Botany,” paragraph 794, 
where it is supported by the high authority of Ben- 
tham. I believe it is more and more acceded to by 
the most competent judges. There are those who 
make transpositions of divorced halves of plants 
name, and who, also make the law of priority mechan- 
ically override other equally valid laws, without re- 
gard to sense. To such the old law maxim of the 
elder De Candolle was applied ; swmmum jus, summa 
injuria. If you like to adopt their ideas, you have at 
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