REVISIO GENERUM PLANTARUM VASCULARIUM. 57 



England the name of G. nitidulum Thuill. has been applied. The 

 lower part of the plant is distinctly hairy. It is an interesting 

 addition to the Thames province. — G. Claridge Druce. 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Revisio Generum Plantarum Vascularium omnium atque Cellulurium 



wultarum secundum Leges Nomenclatures Internationulcs cum 

 Enumeratione Plantarum Exoticarum in Itinere Mundi collect- 

 arum. Mit Erlauterungen von Dr. Otto Kuntze. Leipzig : 

 Felix. London : Dulau. 1891. Pp. civ, 1011. 2 vols. 8vo. 

 £ 2 0s. Od. 



Dr. Kuntze returned from his journey round the world in 

 1876, and his principal occupation since has been the determination 

 of his plants, altogether about 7000 species, with nine new genera, 

 152 new species, and several hundred new varieties. But, as will 

 be seen from the title-page, this part of the author's work is almost 

 completely lost in the revision of genera and their contained species, 

 which has been elaborated during the period of preparation. The 

 remarkable character of this may be understood from his own 

 statement, that he has monographically revised 109 genera, sunk 

 151, renamed 122 on account of their " honionymy," changed 952 

 names to their " legitimate' ' older ones, with a specific renaming 

 of more than 30,000 plants on these grounds. 



These results could only be attained by a strict adherence to 

 some rule, and that a very peculiar one ; and it must be admitted 

 that the author has been thoroughgoing and relentless in his 

 operations, which we have now briefly to examine, for a full dis- 

 cussion of them would expand this notice to an inordinate length. 



In his introduction Dr. Kuntze states his reasons for his pro- 

 cedure, gives his ideas as to numerous alterations in the Laws of 

 Nomenclature (this section extends to forty-six pages), gives a 

 section in English as to insular errors, and supplies many useful 

 ascertained dates of clashing publications; all of which it is 

 impossible here to discuss. Suffice it to say, that the author takes 

 the date of issue of Linnaeus's first edition of his Sy sterna Nature, 

 1735, as his arbitrary starting-point, and thenceforward assigns 

 an equal value to every name that happened to be launched, as 

 being of the same value from a systematic point of view. It follows 

 from this that almost the whole of the work before us is vitiated by 

 the fallacy that the Linnean nomenclature was full and complete 

 in 1735. As a matter of fact, that nomenclature did not receive 

 its completion till 1753, even as regards plants ; whilst the 

 zoologists had to wait till the tenth edition of the System a in 

 1759. Until then the Linnean plan of arrangement was only one 

 of many rival systems, each struggling for recognition, and not until 

 that date did it assume the present accepted form. This considera- 

 tion, of course, shuts out works which were drawn up on the old 

 and pre-Linnean lines, such as Kumph's Herbarium Amboinense, six 



