162 AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST. 
said name to supplant the name of Linnaeus accepted for so 
long a time or propose it as a segregated genus. No doubt 
Rapuntium is the valid name for what is now called Lobelia 
on the basis of absolute historic priority as it is the oldest 
name for the group of plants. The name was first applied by 
Columna in 1649, but Linnaeus is his Species Plantarum sup- 
pressed the name for no very good reason, as he did in cases 
of a great many other perfectly valid names. The only way 
in which Rapuntium could be consistently accepted would be 
to reject 1753 as the "starting point" for plant nomenclature. 
That this was not the intention of the author appears from 
the fact that other names published in the work falling under 
the same category were not changed. If he accepts Rapuntium 
for Lobelia he must also accept for similar reasons Capri- 
folium or Periclymenum for Lonicera, Rorella or Salsirora for 
Drosera, Capnorchis for Bikukulla, Lapathum for Rumex, and 
Orchiastrum for Ibidium or Gyrostachys and so of others. It 
is not likely that the author should have intended to reject 
the rule of 1753 as a "starting point" evident also from the 
fact that in the introduction to the work it is stated he “in- 
tends to follow the recently proposed Philadelphia Code." The 
genera of the Flora of Washington are not credited to any 
particular author, except certain instances, and in the case in 
question it seems to have been intended as a synonym of 
Lobelia or as a segregate toerofrom, as the latter name ap- 
pears in small type after tne word Rapuntium. If it was 
intended by the author as a segregate of Lobelia with the two 
plants mentioned as members of the new genus, even then 
Rapuntium is not the correct name. Two species are men- 
manna as a type. John Hill in 1756 segregated this plant 
from Linnaeus' aggregate genus under the name Dortmanna, 
which would be the oldest name under the “rules” and the 
name for any segregated genus of Lobelia containing what 
has until now been called Lobelia Dortmanna, Linn. 
