12 LAWS OP NOMENCLATURE. 



tween those variations of species that interest botanists as 

 well as horticulturists^ and their more minute subdivisions 

 that interest horticulturists only. The quotation of authors' 

 names after generic and specific nameSj when changes have 

 taken placBj has become an important question, arisen within 

 the last twenty years ; and I have even been obliged to turn 

 my attention to the manner in which authors' names are 

 abridged. This detail may appear puerile^ but as there are 

 botanists who have fallen into the way of abridging names 

 in an unintelligible manner, it is needful to warn them of 

 it, and to remind them how words are abridged in all dic- 

 tionaries. 



My work consists of a text, followed by a commentary, in 

 which will be found explanations, examples, or reasons ia 

 support of the several articles. 



I said that some perplexity is arising from the ever-in- 

 creasing complication of synonymy. Of course, experienced 

 botanists do not feel very anxious on this score. They 

 adopt no new names without having themselves discovered 

 the necessity for so doing, — or, at least, without being sure 

 that they have been approved of, after due examination, by 

 competent men. Moreover, they do not consider synonymy 

 to be without merit. It constitutes the history of the sci- 

 ence. Given fully and according to date, it is both curious 

 and instructive. But it must be acknowledged that many 

 people are alarmed at the increase of synonyms, and that, 

 in practice, a multiplicity of names is inconvenient. Some 

 improvements in the system of nomenclature may have a 

 certain influence in this respect. We must, however^ learn 

 to face the evil, and to understand that the causes from which 

 it proceeds are very numerous, and partly inevitable. Here 

 are a few comparisons that have not been made before. 



In the first four volumes of the ' Prodromus,' published 

 from 1824 to 1830, the proportion between accepted genera 

 and synonymous ones was, approximately,' 100 to 56. This 



' The calculation has been made on the letters A and B of Buck's 

 tables, comprising 277 genera and 154 synonyms, belonging to several 

 distinct Orders, not including synonyms anterior to Linnaeus. 



