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NOTES ON THE "LIST OF BRITISH SEED-PLANTS." 



By James Britten, F.L.S., & A. B. Rendle, D.Sc, F.L.S. 



The following notes have been drawn up to explain the more 

 important alterations in nomenclature which have been made in the 

 List of British Seed-Plants and Ferns just published by the Trustees 

 of the British Museum. The general plan and scope of the List is 

 explained in the preface thereto, to which these notes are supple- 

 mentary. As stated in the preface the alterations are mainly due 

 to the adoption of the earliest specific name, in accordance with the 

 International Rules of Botanical Nomenclature adopted by the 

 Botanical Congress at Vienna in 1905, and to a careful investiga- 

 tion of the literature of the subject. This has led us to restore 

 certain genera which do not appear in the list of " nomina rejici- 

 enda" appended to the Rules, and which therefore by the law of 

 priority must stand. Our investigations have incidentally shown 

 that the work of some of the earlier British botanists — e.g. Hill, 

 Miller, and S. F. Gray — has been inadequately appreciated by con- 

 tinental workers. We have occasionally corrected the authority 

 on which a genus or species stands in British books. 



The number prefixed to each genus is that which it bears in 

 the List. 



4. Adonis annua L. Sp. PL 547 (1753) ; Mill. Diet. ed. 8, n. 1 

 (1768). This name must stand for autumnalis L. (Sp. PL ed. 2, 

 771, 1762) and authors. A. annua L. originally included two 

 species which Linnseus in his second edition distinguished by the 

 names cestivalis and autitmna I is. Annua must be retained for one of 

 the two, and Miller was the first to restrict it to this plant. 



6. Ranunculus divaricatus Schrank, Baiersche Flora, ii. 104 

 (1789). A large consensus of European botanists, including Ascher- 

 son (Flor. Brandenburg, 12), Grenier & Godron (Flor. France, i. 

 25), Neilreich (FL Nieder-Osterr. 683), and Koch (Synops. L 12) 

 agree that this is identical with the later R. circinatus Sibth. FL 

 Oxon, 175 (1794). 



12. Delphinium Ajacis L. Sp. PL 531 (1753). We see no 

 reason for dissociating the British plant from that of the Hortns Clif- 

 fortianus, cited by Linnaeus for this species, and now in the Depart- 

 ment of Botany. The name is attributed to various authors in the 

 British floras. 



24. Fumaria Bastardi Boreau in Duchartre, Rev. Bot. ii. 859 

 (1846-7). The identity of this with F. confusa Jord. (in Cat. Dijon, 

 1848) is asserted by Boreau (Flor. Centre France, ii. 84, 1847), who 

 had seen an authentic specimen of Jordan's plant ; it is also recog- 

 nized by Mr. Pugsley (Journ. Bot. 1902, 180). 



27. Radicula Nastortium-aquaticum comb. nov. Linnaeus (Sp. 

 PL 657) described this as lf Sisymbrium Nasturtium v : m. ,f We have 



i 2 



