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THE FERN BULLETIN 



he thought it safer to do so. When I found the two 

 names represented the same thing, I changed /. Dodgei 

 to I. Canadensis, as I then held the view which the ed- 

 itor holds, that the earliest name, of whatever rank, 

 must stand. According to all codes of nomenclature 

 but the editor's, however, /. Dodgei must be the name 

 of the species as it is the first name of specific rank the 

 plant bore. 



In the Bulletin for January, 1908, p. 18, No. 227 of 

 the fern Yist,Equisetum hiemale robustum (A. Br.) is 

 given as the name which we must suppose the editor 

 countenances, but he says further on : "It may be 

 noted that the correct name for this plant is E. hiemale 

 prealtum (Raf.)." Aside from the question of morals 

 involved in making combinations in this off-hand way, 

 which must perhaps be called citation in synonymy, 

 the name proposed violates article 49 of the Vienna 

 Code in that E. hiemale var. robustum was the first 

 combination for the plant in its present rank. When 

 dealing with this plant in the Fern Bulletin articles I 

 ignored Rafinesque's name because of the uncertainty 

 as to what species it should be applied. Since then, 

 however, I have become convinced by the process of 

 elimination that it applies to the plant named E. ro- 

 bustum by A. Braun, and if it were a good species we 

 should use Rafinesque's name: but it is simply a va- 

 riety of E. hiemale and must retain the name first ap- 

 plied to it as such; E. hiemale var. robustum. The 

 recent great upheavel of nomenclature has been for the 

 purpose of arriving at uniformity. On the question 

 under discussion the two major codes are agreed, and 

 their adherents will work in harmony. I write this 

 note that the readers of the Bulletin who have not the 

 means in keeping in touch with the larger affairs of 



