54 



SHORT NOTES. 



Mr. Hetnsley allows his feelings to run away with him when he 

 says that "we are asked to sacrifice everything that belongs to the 

 present for the sake of a 'principle' that involves endless confusion." 

 Every change causes some confusion ; but the sooner it is made, 

 the less will the confusion be. If Bentham and Hooker, for instance, 

 had adopted the earlier name Trichosporum for Mschynanthm, they 

 would have been followed by Mr. C. B. Clarke, and at least half the 

 species would have at once received their proper name : now, so 

 soon as anyone chooses to re-name them, the names under which 

 they are published must become synonyms. As to the causing of con- 

 fusion,— of unnecessary confusion, moreover,—" the Kew botanists " 

 can hardly plead exemption from that charge. Mr. Hemsley must 

 surely have forgotten the wonderful Kew seed-list for 1885, a notice 

 of which appeared in this Journal for June, 1886 : one would like to 

 know what the gardeners and others " interested in vegetable pro- 

 ducts " thought of "Delphinium Monsieur Viola Hort.," and the 

 large number of similar names which the list contained. 



Mr. Hemsley quotes with approval Mr. Bentham's dictum that 

 it would be "mere pedantry, highly inconvenient to botanists, and 

 so far detrimental to science, now to substitute Fibichia for Cgnodon, 

 or Sieglingia for Triodia." Yet both of these are adopted in the 

 last two issues of the London Catalogue, and Sieglingia appears in 

 two local floras; and, as far as one can judge, "nobody seems one 

 penny the worse." If Dr. Kuntze " imputes unworthy motives to 

 Bentham," he merits Mr. Hemsley's reproof; but it is notorious 

 that the literary side of the Genera is far less satisfactory than the 

 scientific, and it is to be regretted that one or other of the illustrious 

 authors did not devote more attention to this part of the work. 



It appears to us that the time has come for a new Conference on 

 Nomenclature, from which " the Kew botanists" would not, as on a 

 previous occasion, ostentatiously hold aloof, and at which the views 



n ?T? ton and Prof - Gre ene would be represented, as well as 



those of Dr. Otto Kuntze, and those more rational ones of which Mr. 

 B. D. Jackson is the exponent. Failing this, it seems to us that the 

 DeCandollean Laws should be followed. One thing, however, is 

 certain :— whatever standard of nomenclature may ultimately pre- 

 vail, the illogical and unphilosophical basis advocated by Mr. Hemsley 

 cannot be accepted, even tentatively, nor even though "the Kew 

 botanists" give it their powerful support. The adoption of con- 

 venience as a principle is entirely unjustifiable, and must delay 

 the bringing about of that finality which we all desiderate 



SHORT NOTES. 



™i w 4. ** T"^ — r~" So little is k n own of the botanical 



collections at Madrid, that a short note on the subject may be 

 worth prmtmg The Botanic Garden is situated on the prado or 

 mam boulevard of Madrid, close to the world-famed gallery of 

 pictures. It is a comparatively small piece of ground, about a 

 quarter of a mile long and rather less broad, and contains several 



