THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLIV 



Plantarum" should be considered to be well adapted to 

 the requirements of phaenogamic botanists. The fact 

 that it was the first work in which the binomial nomen- 

 clature was methodically applied is a sufficient reason 

 why no work issued prior to 1753 should have been 

 adopted as a basis of nomenclature, but that fact alone 

 is not a sufficient reason for the adoption of the ' 1 Species 

 Plantarum" itself. An examination of that work shows 

 also other merits which should recommend it. It is an 

 admirable summary by the leading systematist of his 

 day of several hundred genera and some thousands of 

 species found not only in Europe but also in North Amer- 

 ica and other more remote parts of the world. In fact, 

 on glancing over its pages one is surprised at the large 

 field covered by Linnaeus and the large number of exotic 

 species which are included in the work. In the numerous 

 editions of the " Species" issued at intervals of a few 

 years until as late as 1830, some under the title of "Sys- 

 tema Vegetabilium" and "Systema Plantarum," the 

 Linnaean traditions were handed down with additions and 

 annotations by well-known botanists, so that there is no 

 gap separating the original edition from the date of the 

 appearance of the first volume of De Candolle's "Pro- 

 dromus" in 1824. It should also be borne in mind that 

 under the careful guardianship of the Linnaran Society 

 of London, the Linnaean herbarium is still in existence 

 and accessible to botanists. It is therefore not difficult 

 to see that for a basis of nomenclature of flowering 

 plants the ' 1 Species Plantarum" was well chosen. 



If we turn now to the cryptogams of the "Species" 

 we find a very different state of things. To those who 

 have not examined the "Species" with reference to this 

 point it might seem that the cryptogamists for the sake 

 of uniformity might be willing to make some sacrifice. 

 For such persons a comparative examination of the 

 phamogams and cryptogams in the "Species" may be of 

 interest. For this purpose I have prepared a table show- 

 ing the number of genera and species in the two groups. 



