854 BOTANICAL NOMENCLATURE. 
couple of instances among hundreds that have lately presented 
the name of Chamebaina cuspidata, in all int a th Crt 
his better sense, to call it Chamebaina squamigera, which is neither 
aaa faulty name nor Wight’s correct one, but an entirely new 
to be rejected by the law of priority, which requires 
edcipfion of — oldest correct name. So, again, an Indian gras 
wai 
a 
then named ‘end described in the ‘Hortus Benghalensis’ and 
distributed by Roxburgh as Coix barbata, and entered i 3 eer 
with Willdenow’s character, as Coix nigit. All 
these names were defective as referring to a wrong ee Brown 
at 
selected Roxburgh’s specific name as the one most generall known 
and the least liable to misinterpretation ; and Brown’s Chionachne 
barbata is therefore the first correct name ; for which Thwaites after- 
wards substituted Chionachne spas an entirely new and useless 
name, which falls by the law of priority. 
It is evident that the orl aia os in botanical nomen- 
clature of late years has been, and is, to insist more and more un- 
qualifiedly upon the law of priority, sik as this line to carry out 
the penicentbee accepted code (formulated by Alphonse de Candolle) 
to its legitimate consequences. In conflicts da Spokih _ of priority 
of name tends to be occa ount. That n name should be 
made for the sake of bringing in an ov BS or Bee 
neglected specific appellation strictly follows from the rule of 
priority and is altogether proper, as Mr. Bentham convincingly 
Bentham was far from correcting him. on ‘tive as that rule 
should be, aes practised systematist knows of wariaaes cases in 
which its application has with more or less propriety been limited. 
To enforce it nakedly by ge seinsiowtion. in ambiguous cases may 
be hardly better than doing so in cases where the older _—— 
appellation was unknown; and to ay: the line at ‘* wantonn 
may be difficult. To keep up the name under which any en is 
rape a in its true genus is 2 i Sbesshekls preckonliin and 
most conformable to accepted rules, as well a most 
the stringent rule of priority, to resuscitate neglected older specific 
names pertaining to their proper genus; but surely it is unreason- 
