FLORA FRANCISCANA. 811 
mean that Don had named the plant Menziesii under some cay 
genus, and that Dr. sate had placed it in Disporum. This syste 
r. Britton said, ‘‘ our common sense of justice and right BREE 
us to be the hetter.”” o “But Prof. Greene, who shares with Dr. 
Britton the honour of having raised this new standard,* seems in 
the work before us to have modified his views, for he writes 
‘* Alsinella saginoides, Greene. Linn Pl. i. 141 (1753) under 
Spergula’’: whereas the name, on the principles which he a 
Britton were the first to recognise, should stand ‘A. sa giuendee 
(Linn.) acm ae hears rly * crassicaulis Greene. Wats. 
principles to which we have adhered from the first ; but how does it 
Square with Dr. patconey s — plea that ‘due credit”? may be 
given ‘‘ to all concerned ” 
Dr. Britton hy picerraa NA asserted in 1888 } { that the plan he 
then advocated was “just, rational, and stable.’ But alas for its 
stability! He has now§ declared his intention of throwing in his 
lot with the ornithologists; the mmon sense of justice and 
right”’ has given way to more fhe considerations. ‘‘I would 
write Magnolia eet (L.),” he says, “ not Magnolia fetida, Sargent. 
[would r have been right on Brittonian principles ai ; 
guditcoria minima i Mataia, not Hicoria pe (Marsh), Britton. 
in 
. és 
of the species, by means of a check-list or other compilation. 
has the advantage of doing away with the double citation rhe 
ee Famed rational, and stable” plan of three years before], and 
iminati personal considerations in the publication of new 
focadiale ” The name last cited will therefore stand as ‘‘ Alsinella 
crassicaulis (Wats.),"’ so long as Dr. Britton remains in his present 
mind: three years ago he would have written it “4. ecrassicaulis 
(Wats.) Greene.”” We cannot help wondering what Prof. Greene— 
the Wallace to Dr. Br itton’ s Darwin—will say to this sudden and 
complete change of front 
_ We are glad to find chat all American botanists are not carried 
away by these new views. Prof. L. H. Bailey has so admirably 
stated the rational view of ee pen, | that we think our readers 
will like to read what he sa 
and tolerably pe anent means of esas ting a particular plant. 
we have * Sars been taught that it is hong oe of any system of 
nomenclature to give credit to any Ps ’s name is 
plant must stand. In order to meet these various requirements, 
botanists have been in the habit—erroneously, it now turns out— 
* Garden and Forest, iv. 202. t Op. cit. 259. { Journ. Bot. 1888, 295. 
§ Garden and Forest, l.c. || Botanical Gazette, July, 1891, p. 215. 
