262 RECENT TENDENCIES IN AMERICAN BOTANICAL NOMENCLATURE. 



11 Sparganium androcladum (Engelm.), Morong. (S. simplex Huds., 



var. androcladum Engelm.)," 



why not 



11 Myosotis palustris (L.), Kelh. (M. scorpioides L. var. palustris L.)." 



But instead of this, the sub-committee print, " M. palustris, Relh." 

 The sub-committee cite "Veronica Anagallis, L." and "Alisina 

 Plantago, L." This is not how Linnaeus originally published these 

 names : he printed in the first, second, and third edition of the 

 1 Species' " Anagall. v" and "Plantago v," and these are correctly 

 given at length by Mr. Pryor* as " Veronica Anagallis -aquatica L." 

 and " Alisma Plantago-aqnatica L." The names as now abbreviated 

 seem to have been first used by Scopoli.f 



Sir W. J. Hooker published (Ic. PL 547) a plant which he named 

 Podocarpus Dieffenbachii. Shortly afterwards, he discovered that the 

 supposed Podocarpus was a Veronica, identical with one which he 

 had figured (t. 580) as V. tetragona. Is the oldest specific name to 

 be maintained in this case, on account of the " credit" due to the 

 mistaking a Scrophulariad for a Conifer ? 



Yet another terror is foreshadowed for us by Prof. Greene in the 

 most recent issue of ' Pittonia.' He has discovered that a large 

 number of binary plant-names, which are familiar to us now, 

 always presumed to be of Linnaean origin, and always credited 

 to Linnaeus," are employed by older writers ; and he gives a list of 

 forty-eight such names, to be found in Ray's Catalogue of Cam- 

 bridge Plants. As far as we can understand, Prof. Greene proposes 

 that such should be assigned to their "true and original author"; 

 and he gives a list of them, beginning : — 



"Allium tirsinum, Fuchs, Historia Plantarum [Stirpium] 739 

 (1542). 



Alsine media Camerarius, Hortus Medicus et Philosophicus, 11 

 (1558) [1588] " 



and so on. No one knows better than Prof. Greene that these 

 names being composed of two words only is a mere accident. Many 

 cited by Ray are of one word only, others are of three, four, or as 

 many as was considered necessary for distinguishing the species 

 from its neighbours. The binomial method, the reduction of 

 nomenclature to a system, is one of the greatest of the reforms 

 introduced by Linnaeus, and the attempt to deprive him of it is not 

 likely to be sanctioned by botanists. 



It is consolatory to reflect that such tendencies as those to which 

 we have referred will be counteracted by Mr. Daydon Jackson's great 

 'Nomenclator/ which is steadily approaching completion, and which, 

 based as it is on the DeCandollean 'Laws/ will take its place as a 

 standard of synonymy. None the less is it necessary to enter a 

 protest against the revolutionary tendencies to which we have 

 called attention, and to express a hope that the chaotic confusion 

 which must result from their indulgence may yet be obviated by 

 considerations of common sense. 



* Fl. Herts, pp. 306, 383. t Fl. Cam. ed. 2, i. 13 and 2G6 



