AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST. 141 
small flowered ones whose fruits were not legumes strictly speak- 
ing. Being geologist and mineralogist, he is first among botanists 
to mention, in his ecologies of certain plants, the geologic formation, 
or at least the probable constituents of the soil in which they grow. 
Throughout the volume, the work of each maker of a botanical 
landmark is analyzed, and the particular lines along which each 
wrought most are, as we have indicated above, made subjects of 
special paragraphs, each paragraph showing its caption in promi- 
nent type. The first of these paragraphs is always that of the Life 
of the botanist. These biographic sketches are more full by far 
than is usual in such history, and will doubtless be read with 
interest by all botanists, if not even by the unbotanical. 
The work will shortly appear, and will form a part of Volume 
54 of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 
Editorial Notes. 
CHANGES IN PLANT NAMES. 
It may be seriously questioned whether in ruling that plant 
names must begin with the date of Linnaeus' Species Plantarum of 
1753, more confusion has resulted than had ever been anticipated. 
More changes in nomenclature have been made since botanical con- 
gresses have convened than before it was deemed necessary to legis- 
late in this matter. Every time a congress meets we are sure that 
as the result of its artificial decisions a number of well established 
names will go. The Vienna Congress decided that POROTA 
should not be arbitrary nor imposed by authority: (Art. 3) 
based on priority. (Sect. 1, Art.15) Apart from the fact ta 
one of the first rules (Art. dé absolutely precludes the idea of 
priority there can be no more arbitrary decision possible than the 
statement of Article 20. 
‘However, to avoid disadvantageous changes in the nomenclature 
of genera by the strict application of the rules of Nomenclature and 
especially of the principle of priority in starting from 1753 the rules 
_ provide a list of names which must be retained in all cases. These 
names are by preference those which have come into general use 
in the fifty years following their publication, or which have been 
