﻿376 



The discrepancies between the treatment of MaJrnuiia and 

 Mathiula are not yet exhausted. Mr. Jackson prints : 



"Malcomia [B. Br. in] Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. II. iv. 121," 



" Matthiola B. Br. in Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. II. iv. 119 " : 

 and Brown's species are similarly bracketed in the former case, and 

 printed without brackets in the other. Why ? One succeeds the 

 other in the same book ; and every one knows that it is only 

 because it is a matter of common knowledge that Brown named 

 these genera that he is allowed to stand as sponsor for them. His 

 name is equally absent from both : why then is it bracketed in one 

 case and not in the other ? 



I think that in a work of this kind it would be best to abide by 

 the spelling of the name employed by the founder of the genus, and 

 I regret that Mr. Jackson should have altered the terminations of 

 specific names to bring them into accordance with grammatical 

 rules. When we read " Kriijewn an is L. Sp. PI. 864," we expect 

 that to be the name as given by Liunfeus, and not Mr. Jackson's 

 emendation of it, correct as that may be from a grammatical stand- 

 point. _ Those who wish to know how the author of a name actually 

 wrote it must look up the original, and this, as tending to pn v< at 



This brings me to consider a charge which may arise from the 

 use of the lmhx in a way not contemplated by its compiler. When 

 we read, for example, that one species equals another, — " Malva 

 obtusa Moench. Meth. 610 = sylvestris,"— we must not for critical 

 purposes accept the statement without investigation. It would not 

 have been possible for Mr. Jackson to investigate these matters for 

 himself, and he has therefore followed some recognised authority 

 on the genus. British botanists, for example, will hardly agree 

 ■ Erythnra lati folia Sm. Engl. Fl. i. 322 = E. Centaurium," 



and they may reasonably doubt the i 

 S. F. Gray, Nat. Alt. Brit. PI. ii. 33 



igL Fl. i. 320 = 



asmuch as conferta is, according to the Index, confined 

 uu opttiu. j_ne book is an invaluable, even an indispensable, guide 



of the plants of the world would be to place lun a^sUiarTwhich 

 the compiler does not claim for it. 



I do not know why Mr. Jackson has not retained the oldest 

 generic name, at any rate in recent cases, where no practical 

 difficulty could result from so doing. It seems unreasonable, for 

 example, to suppress the older Phcenicophorium in favour of the 

 later Stevensonia—a course of action for which, as has been shown 

 m this Journal (1865, 353 ; 1893, 95), there is no adequate justifi- 

 c in n. Whether Bentham had a right to alter his name Martiusa 

 to Martin is very doubtful, and in the Genera Plantar um the older 

 form is retained. 



It would be too much to expect that every source of information 

 had been exhausted : the wonder rather is that Mr. Jackson has 

 neglected so few. Portlandia gypsophita, for instance, which he 

 cites as " Macfad. ex Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 824" will be found 



