88 
Descriptive Notes on Papuan Plants. 
restored. Could the great Linne have foreseen^ how much stress in later 
times vvifh increasing material would he laid necessarily on the precise 
chronologic authority for all genera and species as well of plants as of 
animals, then with his strong sense of justice he would doubtless have 
maintained also the imnies for species, established by his predecessors, in 
all those cases certainly when one single speciiic word only was chosen 
for the designation. The question therefore arises, whether as the 
merest act of right the oldest species-names, limited to one apt word and 
ap})Iied correctl}^ to a germs, should be restored. A number of meritorious 
and toiling men, whose literary labors have sunk gradually into unde- 
served oblivion, would then share anew in the honor of sponsorship for 
the specific surnames of plants and animals, originally given by them. 
At all events wherever Linne himself adopted the very specific appel- 
lations from writers before him, no difficulty ought to exist to return to 
the original authorities, as this would not involve any undesirable change 
whatever of names maintained by the usages of more than a century. 
I find that already in the first edition of Linne’s Species Plantarum not 
less than 286 plants are adduced with only one specific name from 
previous literature, so far as they ai’e correctly }>laced in their genus. 
Although to hardly any of these the least exception could rightly be 
taken at the present day, yet it might perhaps be too much to ask to 
restore them all, inasmuch as in The majority of cases a change of the 
specific word would become needful. But tliere remain still 114 species 
to be considered, the ancient names of which both generic and specific 
were left unchanged by the great Swedish naturalist. A list of these is 
given below from Linne’s own quotations, although I am aware that not 
in every instance modern critical research coincides in the views held by 
Linn^ to what particular species, as now defined, these oldest names 
slionld be drawn. Linne himself must have been led by De FObel, 
de I’EcIuse, Gasp, Bauhin and others to recognize the necessity of 
confining the specific appellations throughout to one word, by which 
principle he at once gained such glorious clearness for all his specific 
designations, obtaining thus also brevity for the systematic record of 
all the organic beings, as well zoological as phytological, known at his 
time, and this in a manner to call forth the imitation and admiration of 
all ages, and to stamp Linne’s name for ever on every square mile of the 
inhabitable portion of the globe tlirough the organic creation. 
l^ammculus aqnatiiis, Dodon. Stirp. Hist. Pempt. 387 ; R. bulbosus, Lobel. 
Plant, seu Stiiqi. Icon. 666 ; Anemone trifolia, Dod. Pempt. 436 ; Calllia paiustris, 
