44 



RUMPHIUS'S HERBARIUM AMBOINENSE 



botany, and while investigations of the status of binomials 

 proposed by the early authors will lead to necessary changes 

 in nomenclature, and changes in the accepted names of plants 

 are always to be regretted, yet a strict interpretation of species 

 from a historical standpoint will correct numerous current 

 misapplications of names and lead to the assignment of these 

 names to the forms for which their original authors intended 

 them. 



The strict application of the rule of priority as to the specific 

 names has resulted in many changes in nomenclature, but 

 these changes are unavoidable, if the international code be 

 followed. Considering the distinctly basic position occupied 

 by the Herbarium Amboinense in Malayan botany, the fact that 

 so many binomials based wholly on Rumphius's work have been 

 published by various authors, and the further fact that a high 

 percentage of the ' 'species" so established have been unintelligible 

 to most botanists and have hence frequently been redescribed 

 under other names, it is rather surprising that more changes in 

 nomenclature have not been found necessary. The conservative 

 botanist will be shocked to learn that as a result of the present 

 investigation of the Herbarium Amboinense such common, widely 

 distributed, and well-known species as the pineapple, the soy bean, 

 the cow pea, and the pomelo must receive new specific names; 

 that such names as Vigna luteola Sw., Canavalia turgida Grah., 

 Pongamia glabra Vent., and others equally well known for the 

 last hundred years or more fall as synonyms ; and that in the true 

 mangrove trees (Rhizophoraceae) the specific names in current 

 use for most species are wrongly applied. 



In proposing changes in nomenclature, I have not hesitated 

 even when such well-known species as Glycine hispida, Ananas 

 sativus, Citrus decumana, and Phaseolus unguiculatus are in- 

 volved. While objections may be voiced to the changes in 

 nomenclature herein proposed, while individual botanists may 

 refuse to adopt the proposed changes, and while exceptions may 

 be taken to some of my interpretations, I cannot understand why 

 logically the changes proposed should not be generally adopted. 

 Each case has been critically worked out from a historical 

 standpoint, and the accepted name is that indicated by the 

 International Code of Botanical Nomenclature now generally 

 accepted by most botanists. To those botanists who make their 

 own rules and in the matter of accepting or rejecting specific 

 names are a law unto themselves, no appeal is made, for appeal 

 is useless. I am firmly of the opinion, however, that stability in 



