354 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. VIII, July, 1954 
Winslow. Essentially, Winslow proposed two 
names for the big tree, representing two pos- 
sible taxonomic placements — Taxodmm 
Washingtonium or Washingtonia Californica. 
He gave more discussion of the name Wash- 
ingtonia, but upon careful analysis it is seen 
that Winslow expressed no opinion, made no 
choice. He said (or meant to say), if it is 
considered a species of Taxodmm, call it T. 
Washingtonhm; if it is a genus, let it be called 
Washingtonia Californica. Under the Interna- 
tional Code of Botanical Nomenclature (1952) , 
a portion of Article 43 applies here: "A name 
... (2) which is merely proposed in anticipa- 
tion of future acceptance of the group con- 
cerned, or of a particular circumscription, 
position or rank of the group (so-called pro- 
visional name), ... is not validly published.” 
The two names published by Winslow might 
fall under the class of alternative names, and 
these are proscribed, but only if published 
after Jan. 1, 1953. By implication, if published 
before 1953, alternative names are valid. How- 
ever, they equally well fall under the first 
section of Article 43: ”A name (1) which is 
not accepted by the author who published it, 
. . . is not validly published.” By this pro- 
vision both of Winslow’s names are invalid. 
The fact that he proposed two of them with- 
out himself accepting either, does not neces- 
sarily protect them as alternative names, be- 
cause he, the publishing author, did not 
accept them himself and they are in every 
sense provisional names. Also applicable is 
Article 73, "A name is illegitimate in the 
following cases: (1) If it was nomenclaturally 
superfluous when published, i.e. if the taxon 
to which it was applied, as circumscribed by 
its author, included the type of a name or 
epithet which ought to have been adopted 
under one or more of the rules.” The epithet 
gigantea of Bindley was available for use under 
either Taxodium or Washingtonia. The fact that 
Winslow did not adopt it in either genus, 
renders his two epithets superfluous and 
illegitimate. 
Taxodium giganteum (Lindl.) Kellogg & 
Behr (1855 [see ed. 2, 1873]: 51) was a name 
that appeared in print in a San Francisco news- 
paper, The Pacific, in a report of a meeting 
of the California Academy of Sciences on 
May 7, 1855. The two authors reported on 
this "Great Tree” of California. They pub- 
lished a new binomial for it and a four-line 
Latin diagnosis, then a long and detailed de- 
scription in English. This description is more 
nearly complete than the previously pub- 
lished ones. It may have been wholly inde- 
pendent, even though numerous descriptive 
words and phrases are suspiciously like the 
ones used by Bindley in his earlier description 
of Wellingtonia gigantea. However, the de- 
scription is longer and contains new details 
and larger measurement of height and dia- 
meter of tree. Hence, it seems certain that 
many of the details were from new reports or 
personal examination of specimens of the 
tree. Their binomial has usually been regarded 
as a new and independent name. It must be 
noted, however, that in their introductory 
paragraph it is stated that they "reported on 
the species of Taxodium, improperly described 
by English authors as Wellingtonia. ...” They 
thus referred to the earlier publication of the 
tree by the Englishman, Professor John Find- 
ley, as Wellingtonia gigantea. To the writers, 
it seems that the new name printed by Kel- 
logg and Behr is better considered a transfer 
based upon Wellingtonia gigantea Lindl. Nei- 
ther of the two alternative interpretations of 
the authorship has any great importance now. 
Botanists of today do not consider that this 
big tree belongs in the genus Taxodium, so 
this particular generic placement is not ac- 
cepted. As a specific epithet, giganteum, if new 
with Kellogg and Behr, is later than its orig- 
inal publication as Wellingtonia gigantea Lindl. 
(1853) and of Sequoia gigantea (Lindl.) Dene. 
(1854), so one of these two epithets, as the 
earlier, was available for transfer to some other 
genus, but not to Sequoia, because of the still 
earlier Sequoia gigantea Endl. (1847), which is 
a synonym of 5. sempervirens. 
Sequoia Wellingtonia Seemann (1855: 27) 
