36 ON NOMENCLATURE. 



general way ; the far more difficult task remains of finding out the 

 oldest name which is sufficiently exact in meaning to be applicable 

 in a strict sense to the plant it is intended to represent. One 

 example of an aggregate which has found its way into the 

 Catalogue is seen in the name " Viola comma L.," a name which 

 has no meaning in an exact sense. In the previous edition of the 

 Catalogue this name stood " Viola canina auct." — a statement 

 perhaps preferable to that of the present edition, but wanting in 

 the preciseness which is found in " Viola canina Reich." In the 

 beautiful fasciculus of Swedish Violse recently issued by Drs. 

 Neuman, Wahlstedt, and Murbeck there occurs the following: 

 " Viola canina Reich. Plant. Crit. i. p. 59. — Linne Spec, plant. &c. 

 p. min. p. ! " — and I think that the testimony of three Swedish 

 botanists on such a point will be generally accepted. Mr. Druce 

 has called attention (Journ. Bot. 1887, p. 312) to another aggregate 

 hi Rhinanthus Crista-galli L. ; but I am at a loss to harmonise his 

 remarks on that name with the apparent intention of his note on 

 the Span/ania. For these latter Mr. Druce does not indicate his 

 alternative names ; and with regard to S. a (fine Sclmiz. I am 

 unable to imagine what alternative he would suggest. 



I think that most botanists will agree with Mr. Druce in the 

 protests he has from time to time made against the practice of 

 making a man " say what he has not said" in the matter of 

 varieties. It is not apparent why a rule should be enforced for the 

 transfer of species, yet be ignored in the transfer of varieties. It 

 is easy to show (as I have shown elsewhere) that the injustice 

 inflicted on authors is quite as great in the latter as in the former 

 case. It is of course only too certain that a long time must elapse 

 before all our varieties are properly adjusted in this respect; still it 

 does seem desirable that the principle should be acknowledged, and 

 carried out as far as possible, in order to prevent the making of 

 more work which must eventually be undone. That some botanists 

 are alive to the necessity of applying the ordinary rule to varieties 

 is shown by the Messrs. Groves' statement of the var. e. of Chora 

 vulgaris in the last edition of the Catalogue. 



In citing the name for restricted Sparganium ravwsum as " S. 

 ramosum Curtis h I did not make any new departure as regards the 

 form of name, but merely followed what appeared to me to be the 

 best course, — often, but not uniformly adopted. Among other 

 similarly restricted names I may mention that of Viola canin< ( 

 Reich., quoted above; V. tUvestru Reich. (BrichmbacMam) \ Poly- 

 gonum nodosum Reich, (maealatom) ; Sparganium nutans Fries 

 {Friesii Beurling); to which I would propose to add Juncus eon- 

 gUmeratm Smith, or earlier authority. The last-named plant has 

 been called J. Leersii by Marsson (Fl. v. Neu-Vorpommern, 18^9)* 

 on account of the uncertainty attaching to the old Linnean name, 

 and the objection to the latter is sustained by a no less authority 

 than Dr. F. Buchenau, who now (Exit. Zusammenst. der europ. 

 Juncaceen, 1885, &c.) adopts J. Leersii Marss. All the new names 

 proposed for the above plants are open to the, as it appears to me, 

 fatal objection that they do not refer the student to the earliest 



