1 66 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 163. 



varietal names, distinctly states that the "names adopted are 

 based strictly on the principle of priority of publication, the 

 oldest specific or varietal name available being retained in 

 whatever genus the plant is located, or whatever its rank as 

 species or variety." 



Professor Sargent, in discussing this point, assumes the 

 same attitude, and states that he has " adopted the method 

 which imposes upon a plant the oldest generic name applied 

 to it by Linnaeus in the first edition of the ' Genera Planta- 

 iLim,' published in 1737, or by any subsequent author, and 

 the oldest specific name used by Linnseus in the first edition 

 of the 'Species Plantarum,' published in 1753, or by any sub- 

 sequent author, without regard to the fact that such a specific 

 name may have been associated at first with a generic name 

 improperly employed." 



In the range of the " New Jersey Catalogue," the author was 

 called upon to consider the specific names of three species — 

 Box-elder, Catalpa, and Sassafras — in the disposition of which 

 we have illustrated the first exceptions in this work to the 

 otherwise rigidly adopted law of priority. Other authors of 

 subsequent publications, in disposing of these plants, have 

 done no less than follow an accepted authority, and have 

 maintained Negundo accroides, Moench ; Catalpa bignonioides, 

 Walter, and Sassafras officinale, Nees. The new Silva, so 

 far as now published, has not, of course, reached these ques- 

 tionable points ; nor are we at liberty to anticipate what the 

 author's decision is, or will be, when these cases are reached. 

 We believe, however, that there can be but -one decision, that 

 of adopting the law without exception. 



We do not wish to be understood as criticising Dr. Britton's 

 position, for he has doubtless critically surveyed the ground 

 upon which this question is raised, and for a good reason 

 chosen to record an exception to the general law of priority 

 already adhered to strictly by zoologists, though, as it seems, 

 not as closely by botanists. His reason, however, for not, in 

 these instances, taking up the oldest specific name for the 

 Box-elder and Sassafras, cannot, we believe, be for lack of 

 evidence to identify with them Linnseus' earlier names — Acer 

 Negundo, Laurns Sassafras, and Bignonia Catalpa. 



But the time has arrived, it would seem, when what may by 

 some be considered as valid objections, in fact positive rea- 

 sons for calling a halt in the adoption of a certain type of spe- 

 cific name, must be waived, at least if we would appear con- 

 sistent with the object — stability of nomenclature, toward 

 which we are tending and for which so much hard work has 

 been and is to be done. 



The principal errors to be avoided in creating new and in 

 reinstating old names need not be detailed here, but chief 

 among them is that of employing a name which shall, if spe- 

 cific, be distinct from any other used in the same genus. 

 Considering this, therefore, as the primary object in the appli- 

 cation of a name, it practically matters but little what the 

 combination finally becomes, by properly locating the plant, 

 so long as it is distinct. It will not be any more easily re- 

 membered or better serve to avoid confusion with other 

 names, whether we call it Negundo aceroides, or if we restore 

 the oldest specific name, Negundo Negundo (Linn.) In other 

 words, a name is a name, and although in the form just given 

 not the most perfect, nevertheless quite as satisfactory as the 

 many specific names in use which either have no meaning at 

 all, o'rvjn their significance attribute to a plant a character posi- 

 tively not possessed. 



But in urging the necessity of following strictly the law of 

 priority in such cases as that of the Box-elder, we wish not to 

 be understood as recommending the creation of new names 

 in which the generic and specific members are exactly alike, 

 but as referring in the opinion here expressed only to names 

 already published, and therefore unalterable. Furthermore, 

 the framers of the botanical code, in seeking to avoid the crea- 

 tion of such names as Negundo Negundo, adopted an article 

 which prescribes that, " In constructing specific names, 

 botanists will do well to give attention to the following recom- 

 mendations" ; and the one which covers this point is, "Avoid 

 specific names having, etymologically, the same meaning as 

 the generic name." 



Doubtless this article, together with a natural repulsion felt 

 for so redundant a combination as Negundo Negundo, has led 

 botanists to stop short in the restoration of such specific names. 

 But the principle urged in the code, and the spirit of those 

 seeking to carry it out, is that each plant shall bear the " most 

 ancient" designation, " provided it is consistent with the essen- 

 tial rules of nomenclature." And in examining the ground on 

 which inconsistency may be charged in taking up, for exam- 

 ple, Negundo Negundo, it is obvious that in such an attempt one 

 would be perfectly in line with all of the "essential rules." 



For it is possible, if not quite fair to suppose from the language 

 of the rule just quoted, that it had for its object only to pre- 

 vent the original construction of a specific name like its genus ; 

 presenting, therefore, an entirely different case from the 

 present difficulty, which is not "constructing" a specific 

 name, but forming a combination in which the "most 

 ancient" name published is applied to the species; so that 

 whether foreseen or not this peculiar difficulty was clearly 

 overlooked, and not provided for in the code. 



Aside from the point here raised for settlement, many other 

 troublesome questions have arisen in the attempt to re-estab- 

 lish obsolete names, and, so far as the botanical code furnishes 

 sufficient authority for such difficulties, there is perhaps no 

 reason for departing from accepted decisions. But it seems 

 there are cases which have required further authority, for 

 which botanists have had recourse to laws adopted by zoolo- 

 gists, particularly ornithologists. In other cases, even a per- 

 haps sufficient law in the botanical code has been discarded 

 for one of the zoologists' covering the same ground, but with 

 different limitations. An example of this is the somewhat 

 general adoption by botanists of the zoologists' method of 

 citing the original author of a specific term (when taken from 

 its original genus) in a parenthesis, with the author of the com- 

 bination outside ; whereas, the botanical code requires only 

 the latter name. 



It seems, therefore, inasmuch as authority for minor cases 

 has already been derived from the zoologists, that we can do 

 no better than follow their advice in the present difficulty and 

 adhere without exception to the law of priority, a decision, too, 

 which must tend to still more harmonize the usages of bota- 

 nists and zoologists. 



If, then, we are to be guided by the zoologists in the ques- 

 tion of taking up for the Box-elder, Sassafras and Catalpa the 

 oldest specific names, which would give for Negundo aceroides, 

 Moench (1771), N. Negundo (L.) (= Acer Negundo, L., 1753); for 

 Catalpa bignonioides, Walter (1788), C. Catalpa (L.) (== Bignonia 

 Catalpa, L., 1753); for Sassafras officinale, Nees (1821), S. Sas- 

 safras (L.) (= Laurus Sassafras, L., 1753), to which may also 

 be added the European Larch, Larix Larix (L.) (= Binus La- 

 rix,L.,i753. L. Europcea, DC, 1805), it may be of interest, if not. 

 some comfort, to know how many names of this peculiar type 

 are already in use among the ornithologists, mammalogists 

 and ichthyologists. 



The following examples among the birds are taken from a 

 revised edition (1889) of the "Check-list of North American 

 Birds," published by the American Ornithologists' Union ; 

 those of the mammals and fishes are taken from Jordan's 

 "Manual of Vertebrates" (1888). 



Birds: Soula Soula (Linn.), Afaja Ajaja (Linn.), Nycticorax 

 Nycticorax Ncevius (Bodd.), Borzana Borzana (Linn.), Crex 

 Crex (Linn.), Gallinago Gallinago (Linn.), Vanellus Vanellus 

 (Linn.), Lagopus Lagopus (Linn.), Zenaida Zenaida (Bonap.), 

 Buteo Buteo (Linn.), Nyctea Nyctea (Linn.), Pica Pica Hudsonica 

 (Sab.), Cyanocephalus Cyanocephalus (Wied.), Xanthocephalus 

 Xanthocephalus (Bonap.), Icterus Icterus (Linn.), Carduelis 

 Carduelis (Linn.) 



Mammals : Vulpes vulpes (L.), Gulo gulo (L.), Bison bison 

 (L.), Bhocaena phocaena (L.); less similar are : Alee alces (L.), 

 DelpJiinus delphis L., Mephitis mephitica (Shaw), Mus mus- 

 culus L. 



Fishes : Mola mola (L.), Hippoglossus hippoglossus (L.), Lota 

 lota (L.), Sarda sarda(R\oc\\.), Anguilla anguilla (L.) 



Forestry Division, George B. Sudivorth, 



United States Department of Agriculture. 



The Western Arbor-vitee. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In your article on this tree, published in Garden and 

 Forest of March nth, you say, "Thuya gigantea, unfortunately, 

 is not hardy in the eastern states, and, like many of the trees 

 of the Pacific forests, it cannot be used to beautify and enrich 

 our plantations." Now, in British Columbia the western Arbor- 

 vitae grows not only along the coast, but at different places as 

 far eastward as the western base of the Rocky Mountains 

 proper, several hundred miles inland and northward in the re- 

 gion of the Interior Plateau, certainly to beyond the fifty-third 

 and probably to beyond the fifty-fourth parallel of latitude. 

 (See Report of Progress Geol. Surv. Can., 1879-80, p. 171 B.) 

 In these inland stations it flourishes often at a height of several 

 thousand feet above the sea, and is subjected, though for com- 

 paratively brief periods, to winter temperatures as low as those 

 of any of the inhabited parts of the Province of Quebec. Argu- 

 ing from these facts, and from the experience gained with 



