62 
ON NOMENCLATURE. 
Priority of specific names appears to be based entirely upon one 
section of the code of 1867. That simply says that when a species 
is transferred from one genus to another the specific name is 
maintained. This principle is usually understood and applied in 
the way that the oldest specific name has a right in all cases to be 
retained. It cannot fairly be so interpreted and applied, since it 
governs only to the extent that this should be the law, but it is 
not to be made an ex post facto law. This practice of retaining 
the oldest name under the genus , no matter what older specific 
names there may be, was adopted by Dr. Gray in his later years, 
and by the Kew botanists, for the reason that once established and 
pretty generally recognized, it would avoid the great mass of 
synonymy, which is being heaped like an incubus upon the science. 
I must express surprise that Dr. Britton has not considered it his 
duty to publish the last written words of Dr. Gray which were 
addressed to him upon this subject, and which expressed his 
positive opinions upon this point. 
There is nothing whatever of an ethical character inherent in a 
name through any priority of publication or position which should 
render it morally obligatory upon anyone to accept one name 
rather than another ; otherwise it would be applicable or true as 
well in the case of ordinal names, morphological names, terato- 
logical, and every other form of name, to which now no one feels 
himself bound to apply the law of priority. The application of 
this law as at present practised by many botanists, which would 
make it the one great law of botanical nomenclature, before which 
every other must yield regardless even of common sense, is a mere 
form of fetichism exemplified in science. Many instances of the 
application of this law are not science, but are rather superstition. 
NOTES ON THE LIFE-HISTORY OF HYDRO- 
DICTYON. 
On the Reproduction of Hydrodictyon utriculatum. Georg Klehs. 
(Flora, 1890). 
On the Formation of Reproductive Cells in Hydrodictyon utriculatum , 
Roth. Georg Klehs. (Bot. Ztg., 1891, Nos. 48-52). 
In the two articles enumerated the author has given some ex- 
tremely important and interesting discoveries relating to the life- 
history of Hydrodictyon. The leading points are summarized under 
the following headings : — 
Alternation of generations. — A fairly high temperature, plenty of 
light, and fresh water, containing inorganic salts in solution, favour 
the formation of asexual spores. These are also the conditions 
also most favourable for vegetative growth. A low temperature, 
subdued light, and stagnant water, containing organic substances, 
especially sugar, in solution, favour the formation of sexual spores. 
In whichever of the two conditions the organism is in at any given 
time the opposite condition can be brought about by a change of 
