Geology and Natural History. 247 
—what we had all overlooked—that in the a on p. 360, 
Linnus corrected the word sinistrwm into dex i But, inas- 
much as two editions of the Phil. Bot. were rainesd at Vienna in 
Linneeus’s life-time, and this correction was not introduced into 
them, he concludes that the correction was canceled by the 
author of it. And he _— that the ieee “ sinistrorsum 
hoe est quod respicit dextram” is a most awkward one for 
denoting the right-about a which they strata had in view. 
Nevertheless the correction was so made in the edition of the 
il. 
Linneus, also in that of Willdenow, published ten years later. 
But DeCandolle the elder, in the Flor ¢ Frangaise and in all 
his writings, followed the original text, as iri has the present 
DeCandolle, who cites as maintaining the same hott raun 
sun. et sometimes saying “from left to right,” as equivalent 
to “against the sun” (as on p Whelan showing that he took the ex- 
ternal position to be the satoralec 
mong those who have used “q ie sinistrorse and dextrorse 
and defined them in the way which supposes the observer to stand 
outside of the helix, are Aug. St. Hilaire, Duchartre, Bentham 
and Hooker, Eichler; and the present writer may be added, 
although our author od age not to be aware of it. hile 
as extus vis. or intus vis. ; and a a the danger of a mis- 
understanding. This is i essential. 
DeCandolle remarks that can wires no reason for the ad 
center of a helix or spire. e thinks a moderate effort wil 
accomplish this. The reply may be that, in the case of a stem 
climbing a hop-pole, or of the scales imbricated on the axis of a 
peste or of a flower-bud on the stage of a disse Spee 2 micro- 
Yet, that the opposing view has also its fitness is obvious from 
the fact that the physicists = mathematicians are divided in 
usage, no on than the naturalis 
In the actual state of the rin the question which leas ought 
to prevail in botany must be determined on a balance there of 
oonstiieariaa: 1. priority and authority, such as that of Linneus; 
