the; genus downingia. 43 



AsTRAGAi<us GERTRUDis. Allied to A. fallax, the slender 

 decumbent stems less than a foot long ; herbage cauescently 

 pubescent : leaves subsessile, leaflets oval to oblong, obtuse, 

 retuse or truncate, K to J^ inch long, in 7 or 8 pairs : 

 peduncles equalling or surpassing the leaves ; raceme short 

 and dense, as much so in fruit as in flower : calyx short, sub- 

 cylindric, 4 lines long including the short teeth : corolla 

 purplish, twice the length of the calyx : pods rather less than 

 an inch long, somewhat deflexed, almost lunate, very acute, 

 coriaceous, obcordate in cross-section by intrusion of the 

 lower suture, pubescent, sessile within the calyx. 



Taos Co., New Mexico, 27 May, 1897, collected by Mr. and 

 Mrs. Heller, n. 3598 ; distributed for A. Greenei, of which the 

 pods are very different. The species is quite as near A . fallax. 

 It is dedicated to Mrs. Heller. 



The Genus Downingia. 



A resolution was made by me some few years since to dis- 

 continue giving approval, and further currency, to a certain 

 class of generic names, that is, such as are in the line of 

 attempts to dedicate second, third, fourth or fifth genera to 

 the same person. It is a new kind of procedure in nomen- 

 clature, this practice of dedicating, first a Brittonamra, then a 

 Brittonastruni, then a Neobrittonia all to the same individual ; 

 and, while I have no great confidence in the validity of the 

 late Asa Gray's genus Greenella, I myself am not so desirous 

 of being commemorated by a genus, that I would countenance 

 either the late Otto Kuntze's Gree7ieina, or the Greeneocharis 

 of Giirke and Harms, even though Greenella should be merged 

 in Xanihocephalum , from which I have never regarded it as 

 any too distinct. 



Now while I would not accuse those who seriously propose 

 such names as meaning any dishonor to us whose names are 

 thus familiarly used as nomenclatorial cheap conveniences, 

 I still can not but remark that the really great names in 



