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THE AMEBIC AN NATURALIST [Vol. XLII 



"the critical study of the classical botanical works," and 

 then said "No one is competent to describe new plants 

 without such study." Wiser words in regard to the 

 question before us were never written, and had they been 

 heeded during the past quarter of a century we should 

 not have had the present condition of confusion in sys- 

 tematic botany. Certainly our practise of allowing 

 everybody, whether trained for the work or not,' to deter- 

 mine the limits of species is taxonomic anarchy. 



It is increasingly evident that botanists must insist 

 upon an adequate training by those who are proposing 

 to make and describe new species. Every teacher of 

 botany should impress his pupils with the seriousness 

 of the work of making new species, and should train 

 them to feel that such work should be left to the few 

 who are masters in the subject. The rule which goes 

 into effect to-day, requiring diagnoses of new species 

 to be in Latin, will prove a deterrent to the tyros who 

 would rush into print with their diffuse English de- 

 scriptions. In this matter, at least, we should all uphold 

 the Vienna code, and rigidly exclude as invalid all publi- 

 cation of species not conforming to it. A more effective 

 deterrent could be provided by an agreement of botanists 

 to restrict publication to certain botanical journals, 

 whose editors should then exercise a revisionary control 

 over all publication of new species. I am well aware 

 of the objection that will be made to such a taxonomic 

 censorship, but we have gone so far in the direction of 

 individual liberty that it has degenerated into license, 

 and some such drastic measure is loudly called for. 

 When we had masters in botany, who were kings to 

 whose authority all must bow, we complained bitterly. 

 Xow that the kings are dead the democracy of botanv 

 is suffering from the misrule of anarchy. If democracy 

 will not control its subjects we shall have to return to 

 a botanical oligarchy, or even to a dictatorship, for an- 

 archy can not be endured. 



Has not the time come for botanists to establish rules 



