14 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 549. 



An unfortunate result of the contrary view 

 held by the two authors is that Pongo Lacep. 

 (1799) takes the place of Simla for the orang. 

 Unfortunate, for however much the proper use 

 of this word has been confused by later au- 

 thors, old Andrew Battell, in ^ Purchas ' made 

 it clear that the native name pongo belongs 

 to the gorilla, and while it is true that some 

 of the codes now in use do not, consider that 

 grievous misapplication in meaning is cause 

 for removal, it may be doubted if any rule 

 which serves to perpetuate error in fact stands 

 on a lasting base where scientific exactness is 

 the object. 



Simia satyrus being transferred to a species 

 of chimpanzee, the proper name for the orang, 

 according to Mr. Kothschild (p. 431), is 

 Pongo pygmoBus (Linn.). The paper of 

 Linnsexis's understudy, Hoppius, in the 

 ' Amoenitates Academicse ' (1763), which is the 

 reliance for this, is not really binominal and 

 should not be considered. The first available 

 use of pygmceus is in Schreber (1796), where 

 it is based on Tyson's excellent figure of a 

 chimpanzee. This is adopted by Rothschild 

 for one of the chimpanzees, as Simia pygmcea 

 (Schr.) ; the orang being Pongo pygmwus 

 (Linn.) — an ill-judged and indefensible con- 

 fusion. 



All these lamentable changes may be avoid- 

 ed by the manner of treatment I have sug- 

 gested, which appears to me to be quite within 

 the rules. Present synonymy will be undis- 

 turbed and an appalling amount of confusion 

 will be escaped. How great this is will be 

 seen on attempting to correlate Mr. Roth- 

 child's nomenclature with some known species. 

 The only change required is that Pan Oken 

 (1816) seems necessary for the chimpanzee, 

 but this does not entail any alteration in 

 specific names. 



If it is to be regretted that Mr. Rothschild 

 (p. 421) has followed Matschie so closely as to 

 continue the erroneous date of ' Satyrus Les- 

 son, 1799 ' — which should be 1840 — it is, at 

 least, unalloyed gratification to be assured (p. 

 440) that the distinguished author and patron 

 of zoological science is prepared to lead con- 



tinental and American zoologists in the cam- 

 paign for a system of pure trinomials. 



Arthur Erwin Brown. 

 Zoological Gardens, Philadelphia, 

 Mav 27, 1905. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The American Naturalist for June contains 

 the following articles : 



E. W. Beery : 'Fossil Grasses and Sedges. 



H. W. Rand and J. L. Ulrich : ' Posterior Con- 

 nections of the Lateral Vein of the Skate.' 



H. W. Rand: 'The Skate as a Subject for 

 Classes in Comparative Anatomy; Injection 

 Methods.' 



T. H. RoMEiSEE : ' A Case of Abnormal Venous 

 System in Necturus macnlatus.' 



R. II. Howe, Jr. : ' Sir Charles Blagden, earliest 

 of Rhode Island Ornithologists.' 



C. R. Eastman : ' The Literature of Edestus.' 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



THE BO.TANICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The twenty-ninth regular meeting of the 

 Botanical Society of Washington was held at 

 the Portner Hotel, May 27, 1905. The fol- 

 lowing papers were presented: 



Evolutionary Status of the Laminariacece : 



Walter T. Swingle. 



Mr. Swingle's paper was illustrated by 

 specimens from the algal herbarium of Mrs. 

 W. T. Swingle. It was pointed out that of 

 the twenty-two genera belonging to the true 

 Laminariaceffi (Corda and Adenocystis being 

 excluded) twelve (or over one half) are lim- 

 ited to the Pacific coast of the United States, 

 from Lower California to British Columbia. 

 In all, sixteen genera occur within these limits, 

 while two more occur in Alaska and one more 

 in New England, making nineteen genera in 

 all from the United States territory in North 

 America, or over four fifths of the Tcnown 

 genera. In this territory there are fifty-one 

 species, or almost exactly half of the one hun- 

 dred and five species now known from the 

 whole world. 



The LaminariaceaB were shown to be cold- 

 water algse and are limited in their distribu- 

 tion chiefly by the summer temperatures of 

 the sea water. The family originated in the 



