—82 — 
A BLUNDER IN NOMENCLATURE. 
I. Hagen. 
Among the synonyms of Neckera co?npIanata we find Eleuter a ornitho- 
podioides Stuntz. Mr. S. C. Stuntz established this combination (Torrey 
Bulletin, Vol. 27, April, 1900), because Hypnum complanatu 7 n L. as pub- 
lished in 1763 was superseded by Hpynum ornithopodioides Scop. 1760. 
This conclusion was based upon quite false premises. 
At first sight those acquainted with the early literature of the subject 
will consider it suspicious that a binary name was used by Scopoli in 1760. 
In the first edition of his Flora Carniolica issued that year, he had not yet 
accepted the Linnean nomenclature; it is only in the second edition (that of 
1772) that he employes binary names. In fact, by examining the two edi- 
tions, it proves that the name Hypnum ornithopodioides is not to be found in 
the first of them, but in the second there is described on page 320 an Hypnum 
ornithopodioides for which he quotes as synonym Hypnum fronde sub- 
pinnata ramosa, foliis pellucidis acutis planis FI. Carn. ed. I, p. 150. This 
species is not, in ed. I, designated by any binary name; the latter dates con- 
sequently from 1772. It is possible that this Hypnum ornithopodioides is 
really H. complanatum L., as Bridel indicates, nothing in the imperfect de- 
scription preventing this supposition. But this identity does not appear 
from the synonyms quoted by Scopoli, among which one of Dillenius’s and 
one of Linne’s refer to an exotic plant which is Rhacopilum tomentosum 
according to other authors. 
Thus, apart from the circumstance that Hypnum ornithopodioides Scop. 
1772, is antedated by H. ornithopodioides L. 1753 and H. ornithopodioides 
Huds. 1762, the illicitness of rejecting the name complanatu 7 n and substi- 
tuting that of ornithopodioides is sufficiently pointed out. But the situ- 
ation becomes still more unfavorable for Mr. Stuntz when taking into 
consideration the fact that H. complctnatui 7 i L. was published not only in 
1763, but already in 1753, in the first of edition Species Plantarum. 
Mr. Stuntz quotes: 
Hypmi 7 n ornithopodioides Scop. FI. Carn. p. 104 (1760). 
Hypnu77i C07npla7iatu77i L. Sp. PI. p. 1588 (1763) instead of Hypnu 77 i 
C07nplanatu7n L. Sp. PL, ed. I, p. 1123 (1753). 
Hypnwn fro 7 ide subpi 7 i 7 iata ra 77 iosa, foliis pellucidis acutis planis Scop. 
FI. Carn., ed. I, p. 150 (1760). 
Hyp 7 iu 7 n ornithopodioides (nec. L. nec. Huds.) Scop. FI. Carn., ed. 2, 
II, p. 329 (1772). (The last two on the authority of Bridel). 
The moral of this is to avoid second-hand quotations. Precaution is 
especially needed in using the early literature, which teems with incorrect 
quotations; when using it uncritically, that is, without going back to the ori- 
ginals, it is easy to compromise one’s self. 
Trondhjem, Norway. 
