The Vienna International Congress. 171 
Congress. Of these there were twelve Americans and six British 
representatives. Professors Wiesner and von Wettstein were joint 
Presidents of the Organising Committee, and Dr. Zahlbruckner, the 
energetic Secretary. 
The Congress was inaugurated by a supper in the Hall of the 
Kaufmannscher Verein, where Professor Wiesner welcomed the 
guests. The official opening at which the world-famed geologist, 
Professor Suess, greeted the members, was held on the Monday 
morning in the great “ Festhalle” of the University. 
The papers which formed part of the actual work of the 
meeting were arranged in groups under general heads. One of the 
most interesting of these was the Development of the European 
Flora since Tertiary times. The subject was introduced generally 
by Professor Engler of Berlin, whose work in this branch of 
historical plant-geography is well-known. Professor Engler is 
indefatigable in developing our knowledge of the distribution of 
plants, not only by his own work, but also by his inception of large 
schemes for bringing together the rapidly advancing knowledge of 
distribution, both in Europe and in the world at large. On this 
occasion he put in a timely plea for the preservation of specimens 
of typical European plant-formations, especially of those which 
throw light on the evolution of European Vegetation. Many of 
these are threatened with destruction in the immediate future by 
the activity of man in clearing, draining and building. A pressing 
instance was mentioned by Dr. Lauterborn in the primitive forests 
of Bosnia, which are apparently threatened with imminent 
destruction. This is a subject that should be urged on the attention 
of the Governments of the different countries, though as far as 
Great Britain is concerned it is probable that we shall have to look 
to private munificence if anything is to be done. 
One of the most important features of the Congress was 
undoubtedly the conference on botanical nomenclature (under the 
able and genial presidency of Professor Flahault) which had to 
discuss the recommendations of the commission on nomenclature 
appointed by the Paris Congress of 1900. The work of the 
conference was only rendered possible by the labours of Dr. Briquet, 
who had collated the very numerous emendations and modifications 
of De Candolle’s code submitted during the five years that have 
elapsed since the.Paris Congress by various societies, institutions 
and individual botanists. These suggestions had been discussed and 
voted on by the commission, and the resulting recommendations 
of this body were drawn up by Dr. Briquet and submitted to the 
present conference, which was attended by about 150 members 
The work of the Conference which sat every afternoon from 
3 o’clock till a late hour was naturally very heavy, but a very earnest 
desire was evinced to arrive at some solution of the difficult 
questions involved, and several compromises were agreed to. The 
code of laws adopted, based on De Candolle’s, will consist of 
“rules” and “recommendations,” the former having the force of 
binding laws, while the latter merely put forward suggestions for 
the guidance of systematic botanists. 
One of the most important results secured, and one that will 
certainly be welcome to the non-systematist, was the passing by an 
Overwhelming majority of a list of generic names, established by 
