362 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 232. 



the curculio. Herbaceous plants, too, which are pestilent 

 weeds, and spread by seed into adjacent tields, ought to be 

 destroyed. But no discrimination is made. Lilies and 

 Columbines and Clematis fall with the Canada Thistle, and 

 a warty Wild Cherry is quite as safe as a Tulip Poplar. If 

 half the zeal were displayed in a persistent warfare against 

 the real pests of forest and farm as is now exercised against 

 the beautiful growth along country way-sides, injurious in- 

 sects and infectious fungi would soon be less abundant 

 and destructive. 



Botanical Nomenclature. 



WE have received a circular containing the sugges- 

 tions of a committee composed of the following 

 well-known German botanists, Ascherson, Engler, Schu- 

 mann and Urban, appointed to amend the laws of botan- 

 ical nomenclature as adopted at the Paris Conference of 

 1867. The committee proposes the following changes : 



First, that the starting-point of the priority of genera, as 

 well as species, shall be 1753, the date of the publication of 

 the first edition of Linnaeus' Species, instead of 1737, the 

 date of the publication of the first edition of his Genera. 



Secondly, that nomina nuda and seminuda shall be re- 

 jected, pictures alone without diagnoses not being allowed 

 any claim of priority. 



Thirdly, that similar names shall be preserved if they 

 differ by ever so little in the last syllable, although if they 

 only differ in the mode of spelling the newer one is to be 

 abandoned. 



Fourthly, the names of certain large and universally 

 known genera, a list of which is added to the report, are 

 to be preserved, although if the strict rules of priority were 

 followed they would be rejected. 



The committee states, as a reason for abandoning the 

 first edition of the Genera of Linnseus as the authority for 

 genera, that " the turning-point from the ancient botany to 

 our modern science rests in the introduction of the binomial 

 nomenclature, as previously to the publication of the Spe- 

 cies Plantarum (1753), which followed a year after the 

 fourth edition of the Genera, the scientific position of Lin- 

 nseus was not superior to that of Tournefort, Rivinus and 

 many other botanists who often had described and segre- 

 gated the genera more exactly than he did." 



With reference to their second change the committee 

 say : " Many genera have been founded on a picture only 

 without a diagnosis. No doubt, by means of it a species 

 sometimes can clearly be made out and recognized, and if 

 the picture is a good one all the characteristics of the plant 

 can be observed. But a picture can never show the spe- 

 cial characteristics alone which raise the genus above the 

 other of its affinity. A genus only gains priority by a ver- 

 bal diagnosis, and nomina nuda and seminuda are to be 

 rejected; therefore the following works cannot claim a 

 right of priority : Rumphius, Herbarium Amboinense, Bur- 

 mann, Flora Indica, Patrick Browne, History of Jamaica, 

 Lamarck, Illustration des genres pro parte, etc." 



As illustrating the meaning of Article iii. the committee 

 would preserve Adenia as well as Adenium, Chloris as well 

 as Chloraea and Chlora, Atropa as well as Atropis, while 

 such cases as Epidendrum and Epidendron, Oxycoccus 

 and Oxycoccos, are held to be only different modes of 

 spelling the same word, and the newer one is to be aban- 

 doned if they relate to different genera. 



The provisions of Article iv., as proposed, are more radi- 

 cal, and will give rise, probably, to more criticism than 

 the others. In their explanatory note the committee state 

 that " the impulse that led to the acknowledgment of the 

 right of priority was only the vivid desire to create a stable 

 nomenclature. If we see that b}' the absolute and unlim- 

 ited observance of the principle we probably gain the con- 

 trary of what we intended ; we, who have ourselves made 

 the rules of priority as a law, have the right to amend the 

 latter. Therefore we present a list of genera that have 

 more than a merely scientific interest or that are very large. 



and we propose to conserve them in spite of the rules of 

 priority, in order to avoid a general confusion by the 

 change of many thousand names." They then give a list 

 of seventy-eight genera for which they would propose to pre- 

 serve names which are not the oldest. Among these some ' 

 of the most interesting to American botanists are IMalvas- 

 trum (1849) in place of Malveopsis (1844), Oxytropis (1812) 

 for Spiesia (1790), Desmodium (1813) for Meibomia (1763), 

 Liatris (1791) for Laciniaria (1762), Mikania (1803) for Wil- 

 loughbya (1790), Statice (1807) for Limonium (1759), Den- 

 drobium (1799) for Callista (1790). 



The first article seems to us unimportant, although, as 

 all modern nomenclature rests upon the system of Lin- 

 naeus and dates from the publication of his Genera and 

 Species, we should prefer to go back to the first edition of 

 the Genera, although it was published before his binomial 

 system was perfected and before he had established his 

 supremacy over all his rivals. 



Of the wisdom of the second clause there can be no ques- 

 tion, as no theory of nomenclature can stand which is 

 based only on the use of names unsupported by published 

 diagnoses, although we confess we do not understand the 

 wisdom of excluding Browne's History 0/ Jamaica, as his 

 diagnostic characters supported by figures rarely leave any 

 doubt as to the species or wish to record. 



Article iii. will certainly be approved by working natu- 

 ralists ; but whether the great majority of these adopt the 

 fourth article and consent to an arbitrary selection of cer- 

 tain names, these names being taken contrary to a well- 

 established rule and simply for convenience, seems to us 

 doubtful. If all naturalists could be induced to agree to 

 call Malveopsis Malvastrum or Spiesia Oxytropis, because 

 these names are more familiar to the present generation 

 and their retention would save labor and confusion, and 

 if not only the present generation of naturalists, but their 

 successors for all time, could be bound to adopt these names, 

 then the plan would be an admirable one. But, unfortu- 

 nately, the only way to make nomenclature really stable is 

 by an unfailing adherence to a rule. If one exception is 

 admitted another will be, and as long as the human mind 

 is active there will be botanists who vv'ill think that they 

 can secure notoriety for themselves by changing names 

 and by making other deviations. To prevent this and to 

 make nomenclature stable, it seems to us that the law of 

 priority must be maintained at any cost of labor and incon- 

 venience, and that the longer its adoption is postponed by 

 makeshifts like the one here suggested and by efforts to 

 avoid meeting the issue squarely, the greater wfll be the 

 ultimate confusion, and we deplore any effort to postpone 

 changes of names which, sooner or later, are sure to be 

 made, and every attempt to avoid compliance with the 

 fundamental law on which scientific nomenclature is based. 



The whole subject, however, is one which demands 

 careful consideration and discussion as well as the co- 

 operation of working naturalists in all parts of the world ; 

 and their contemporaries will be grateful, whether they 

 agree with their recommendations or not, for the thought 

 and labor the members of this committee have bestowed 

 upon this most difficult and perplexing subject. 



The New Jersey Building at the Columbian Fair. 



FOLLOWING the example set at the Philadelphia Cen- 

 tennial, the various states of the Union will have 

 houses of their own on the grounds of the Columbian Ex- 

 position at Chicago. Of course, the attractiveness of the 

 portion of the grounds devoted to these buildings will de- 

 pend on the taste shown in their design. The most 

 prominent of all these structures, the one belonging to the 

 state of Illinois, does not seem to us worthy of the fine 

 position it occupies, while the New York State building, 

 which is to be in the style of an Italian villa, seems very 

 appropriate to the use for which it is intended, and, judg- 

 ing from drawings, it will be a work of great beauty. The 



