54 LAWS OP NOMENCLATURE. 



repetant." Mr. Shuttleworth, in a work on Malacology,^ de- 

 votes a chapter to the support and development of the 

 same ideas. »■ 



Let us now pass from zoologists to botanists, their opinion 

 being to us of greater importance. 



M. Kirschleger, in 1852, after mentioning the genera 

 Ranunculus and Batrachium, in the preamble to his ' Flora 

 of Alsace,' expresses himself as follows : — 



" A very simple process has enabled us to render unto every 

 one the honour that he is entitled to. To the author of the new 

 genus detached from the old one we have left the merit (if 

 there be any) of having raised an ancient subgenus to the 

 rank of a genus, by appending his name to it. But we let 

 the specific name be followed by that of the author who 

 made it, or who first applied it, taking care to place it in a 

 parenthesis: thus, Qephalaria pilosa (L. sub Dipsaoo). We 

 are aware that this may offend the conceit of some authors, 

 but we like better not to fail in sentiments of justice and 

 gratitude towards our elders.'' 



In 1858, M. Questier, addressing himself to the Botanical 

 Society of Prance (Bull., vol. v. p. 37), protested against this 

 new method. He cites M. Billot as having written, Mul- 

 gedium aVpinum L. Sp. 1117 (sub Sonehus) ; Less. Syn. 142> 

 etc. " Axe we not immediately shocked," says M. Questier, 

 " to see the genus Mulgedium attributed to Linnaeus ? True 

 it is that the corrective is to be found in the parenthesis, 

 but did not the nomenclature in general use until now tell 

 us the same thiug more clearly, and with less risk of error ? 

 If now you wish to learn, and natural enough it is that you 

 should, to whom belongs MulgedAum alpinum, you may 

 perhaps guess, or perhaps, by dint of researches in books, if 

 you have them, you may find out that it is to the author first 

 quoted after the parenthesis. Suppose that, suitably to the 

 works where the new system is followed, it be necessary to 

 make an index, a list, a catalogue, a local flora, a synopsis, 

 a compendium, in which little room can be given to the de- 

 velopment of synonymy, is it not to be feared that both 



' Shuttleworth, ' Notitise malacologicse,' Hefti. Berne, 1856, p. 21. 



