8 Rhodora [JANUARY 
out question as the type of the Linnean Alsine, and since A. sege- 
talis belongs to the genus known variously as Spergularia Pers. (1805), 
Tissa Adans. (1763) or Buda Adans. (1763) it is obvious that Alsine 
is synonymous with them. By the International Rules Spergularia, 
being a nomen conservandum, is retained over all competitors, but by 
those who attended the International Congress at Vienna as regular 
Commissioners or as delegates but who have felt no obligation to 
accept the majority rulings of that representative convention! 
and by those who prefer the provincial American Code to an inter- 
national agreement, the name Alsine L. should be used for Tissa, 
Buda, or Spergularia. 
It is not clear upon what ground followers of the American Code 
apply the name Alsine to Stellaria L. The American Code is explicit 
as to the type of a Linnean genus, and by its ruling the type of Alsine » 
is unquestionably A. segetalis. The portions of the American Code 
bearing upon this point are in Canon 15: 
“The nomenclatorial type of a genus or subgenus is the species 
a eomgd named or designated by the author of the name. If no 
as designated, the type is the first binomial species in order 
eligible dtidee the ee provisions: 
“ (6) A figured species is to be selected rather than an unfigured 
species in the same work. In the absence of a figure, pln 
specimen in a a regularly sublished series of exsiccatae. IN THE CASE 
ENERA ADOPTED FROM PR 
OF G BINOMIAL AUTHORS (WITH OR we 
OUT CHANGE OF enh x — FIGURED BY THE AUTHOR FRO 
WHOM THE GENUS ADOPTED SHOULD BE SELECTED. [Capitaliza: 
tion of the last snc ours 
Exampes.— Lespedeza Michx. Fl Am. 2: 70 pert g is typified by 
Bor. 
L. procumbens Michx. loc. cit. pl. 39, the species fret figure 
Now, referring to Alsine L., there were but two species: Ist, A. 
media, which is Stellaria media Vill. and 2d A. segetalis, which 18 
1 Even the most painstaking students sometimes fail to view international agreements sub- 
jectively. Thus, , Dr. Witmer St tone, writing in September, 1911 . |, finds vil _ img 


f thef erican Code)” 
— Plants So. N. J. 34 (1911); and, therefor y excursion into 
the botanical field, adopts in his botani ical ‘oudag methods which are quite at variance 
those sanctioned by aged the International Rules or the American Code. Nee 
when certain zoi Iteraticns of their International Code oe 
Dr. Stone felt, Gites: 1912, as most of us do, that, “if we are to shift back and forth 1 & ae 
modate the views of now one coterie of investigators, now another, we might as 
all codes and lapse into nomenclatural chaos” — Science, n. 8. xxxv. 818 (1912). 


