48 The American Naturalist. 
above, the statements are generally true. The general reader, howey 
and the beginner in botany who meets a word for the first time a 
who seeks a definition which will give him a clear notion of its 
ing, will often turn away disappointed.—Cuarwes E. Bessey. 
Timely Words as to the Nomenclature Question.— 
this time, when there is not a little of ferment and effervescence 6 
the rules which should govern in the nomenclature of plants, it wil 
be well for us all to read the following remarks made by Al 
De Candolle in the introduction to the “ Paris Code” of 1867. T 
convey very well the ideas of the “ moderns ” of to-day. f 
“ The system of nomenclature of organized beings, founded by Linn 
zeus, was looked upon until the middle of this century as extremely 
ingenious, and has been thought, by some authors, a most admirable 
one. It was quoted in philosophical lectures and found superior t 
that of chemical nomenclature, on account of its adapting itself mo 
readily to changes necessitated by the progress of discovery. Bo 
ists professed for it the greatest veneration. They boasted of hav 
developed a better nomenclature than zoologists, which is not surp i 
‘ing, as the most illustrious botanists, thirty or forty years ago, gay 
infinitely more attention to this subject than zoologists. í 
Nevertheless, of late years, a change has been perceptible; op 
is wavering, enthusiasm abated. Here and there, in different countries, 
doubts have arisen and complaints have been made regarding the 8y% 
tem of botanical nomenclature.” * * * 
“Tt follows that it is useful—every ieenty years, for instance 
revise the ensemble of received rules.” 
“Without going far back it is easy to see om since the end of 
eighteenth century botanists have endeavored to free themselves os 
many useless shackles put on by Linnzeus and tightened by his disc 
ples, above all with relation to the choice of generic names. Jan 
dolle [the elder, in Théorie Elémentaire] was ruled by the idea 
having the law of priority properly roes a law which, fifty y 
ago, was often unscrupulously infringed.” * * * 
“ The time must however come, when actually existing vegetable forms 
having all been described, herbaria containing undoubted types ® 
them, botanists having made, unmade, or oftentimes remade, elevated 
or lowered, and above all modified, some hundred thousand groups 
from orders downward to simple varieties of species, the num 
synonyms tivis, become infinitely greater than that of admi 
groups—it will become necessary to effect some great revolution in! 
