REMARKS ON BOTANICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. 175 



i.-xvi. Lundas, 1817. 8vo, Here sections of two or three sheets 

 are allotted as theses to sixteen students, the sentences often 

 running on from one to another, even a fraction of a word like 

 Mo-no- being divided between two Eesponsors. The pagination is 

 continuous, irrespective of the several title-pages which are dropped 

 in at these intervals. I consider the best way out of the present 

 bad state of things is, to arrange the theses, when the Praeses is 

 named, under his name, with a cross-reference to it from the name 

 of the Eesponsor, the actual or reputed author. By this means 

 the large collections under such names as Linnaeus, Wedel, and 

 Thunberg would still be kept intact, whilst a ready means would 

 be afforded of getting at the works themselves when only the name 

 of the Responsor happens to be known. 



The cataloguing of anonymous works need not offer any great 

 difficulty ; I think the plan adopted by Pritzel in ed. ii. is good 

 enough for practical purposes, although susceptible of improvements 

 in details. It is, to arrange such works in a separate section, and 

 to take the first substantive in all languages as the key-word to 



determine their special alphabetical order. This regulation would 

 present the eccentricities which too often may be met with, as for 

 instance, hi the indexes to Bonplandia, where unimportant words, 

 as Der, Die, Wie are used, to the complete hiding of the important 

 words in the titles. Indexes are rarely pleasant reading, and 

 should be helps, not hindrances like those in Bonplandia, which 

 almost compel the searcher to read them through to ascertain if 

 the information he seeks is contained in the volumes consulted. 

 Almost as great a nuisance are separate indexes for different 

 languages, but this custom is giving way to the sensible plan of 

 one comprehensive index for the whole. 



Pritzel' s example of the very useful index to anonymous works, 

 which are ranged under the putative authors, should be followed 

 m the future bibliography; likewise, the index to names incidentally 

 mentioned in the titles of books, or not standing first in joint- 

 authors' names. The system of numbering the various works, as 

 in the 'Thesaurus,' is decidedly good, and well worthy of 

 imitation. 



Books not actually handled should have the derivation of the 

 title appended. Uniformity is also requisite in spelling out, or 

 otherwise the diphthongs, a>, oe, and the modified vowels, a, o, u, 

 as ae, oe, ue. The Scandinavian a should be arranged m 

 the ordinary sequence with ft, and not at the end of the 

 alphabet. 



I here quote the rules laid down by the Index Society, for 

 ensuring uniformity in the troublesome matter of prefixes, as 

 haying been carefully drawn up, and substantially m accord with 

 ftifaehi usage in Ed. ii., where he abandoned some of the modes 

 adopted in Ed. i. 



"Proper names ... to be alphabetically arranged under the 



prefixes : — 



