376 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



No apology was necessary, and it seems to me a very minor 

 matter as to whose name shall stand as the authority for a 

 species, so long as the plant is described, the species is valid, and 

 the description sound. Possibly the circumstances under which 

 this overlapping arose may be w^orthy of mention. Early in 1907 

 Mr. Fitzgerald visited the Melbourne Herbarium, and as he was 

 interested in the West Australian Flora, he was given for 

 examination a number of plants chiefly from that district, which 

 had been placed on one side for further examination. To 

 these plants manuscript names were attached, but Mr. Fitzgerald 

 left before any detailed examination or description of them had 

 been made. I wrote repeatedly asking that the work of 

 examination should be completed and the new species published, 

 and finally after due notice had been given the material in 

 question was examined in detail by Dr. White and myself. 

 Certain of the manuscript names were found to be attached to 

 valid species, but in other cases it was found possible to refer the 

 plants to species or varieties already described. The valid 

 species were then described ; to avoid possible confusion the 

 manuscript names were used and Mr. Fitzgerald's name men- 

 tioned in each case as the author of the manuscript name. As 

 the later descriptions published in the Journal of Botany are 

 given with a Latin diagnosis, these might stand for the species 

 according to the strict interpretation of the Vienna Rules, but at 

 the same time these Rules are expressly intended to discourage 

 what is an ever-present danger, namely, the promiscuous bestowal 

 of manuscript names upon imperfectly examined material, a 

 practice which is apt to retard progress instead of advancing it. — 



AlFEED J. EWART. 



Parnassia palustris L. var. (or forma?) condensata (p. 254). 

 — I hcive known this curious maritime plant since 1877, having 

 traced its course frequently all along the Lancashire and portions 

 of the Cheshire coast sandhills. While fully agreeing with 

 Messrs. Travis and Wheldon as to its strange appearance and 

 apparently distinct physiognomy, I would consider it a form 

 rather than a variety, for the following reasons. Early in the 

 eighties, just before building operations w^ere commenced on the 

 coast-line between Lytham and Blackpool, that have culminated 

 in the thriving township of St. Anne's-on-Sea, it occurred to me 

 to make a botanical survey of the whole area. Here grew the 

 Parnassia, as " condensata "as at Birkdale and iVinsdale, on the 

 other side of the estuary of the Ribble ; but I found every grada- 

 tion, from the dwarfed specimens hardly an inch high, to the very 

 robust and thickly caulescent plants. It was next traced further 

 inland, where it assumed the normal state. Specimens preserved 

 in my herbarium attest to this. It seems to me, therefore, that 

 until it is proved by cultivation that this interesting plant main- 

 tains its peculiarities, it should not be considered as more than a 

 form. I endeavoured to propagate it, and grew it for some time, 

 but it eventually died off, wdth no satisfactory result. At Lytham, 

 the oases between the sandhills were even more prolific of 



