THE PLACE OF LATIN IN SYSTEMATIC BOTANY 
[The following memorandum has been communicated by a correspondent; 
and, as it represents my views on the subject, derived from those of the late 
Dr Harry Bolus, I have much satisfaction in publishing it here. Editor.] 
A serious problem arises from the virtual disappearance of Latin from the 
curricula of many schools, more especially in the Dominions and the United 
States of America. Most of the older works on Systematic Botany are written 
in Latin. In other branches of Botany, papers and books may become obsolete 
during the course of a generation or even sooner, but in Systematic Botany it 
is frequently necessary to refer to the original descriptions of natural groups, 
in order to identify them with certainty, and these original descriptions may 
date back to 1753 or even earlier. Thus, in order correctly to interpret many of 
Linne’s species which are characterized by a very brief phrase in the Species 
Plantarum, it is necessary to refer to such works as the Hortus Cliffortianus 
and the earlier books cited therein. 
The Latin language continued to be the favourite medium of technical 
description, adopted in a great majority of taxonomic works until about the 
middle of the nineteenth century. From that time onwards more Floras were 
written in modern languages than in Latin. 
A list of all important taxonomic works written in Latin would occupy 
many pages. Here only a small selection can be cited. Among the general 
works it may suffice to mention the various editions of Linne’s Genera Plan- 
tarum, Species Plantarum and Systema Naturae, Jussieu’s Genera Plantarum, 
Persoon’s Synopsis, Sprengel’s Systema, Roemer and Schulter’s Systema, 
Endlicher’s Genera Plantarum, Bentham and Hooker’s Genera Plantarum, 
De Candolle’s Prodromus, De Candolle’s Monographiae Phanerogamarum and 
Engler’s Pflanzenreich, the latter still in course of publication. 
Among European Floras may be cited Wahlenberg, Flora Lapponica (1812) 
and Flora Suecica (1831-33), Ledebour, Flora Rossica (1842-53), Williams, 
Prodromus Florae Britannicae (1901-12), Ganden, Flora Helvetica (1828-33), 
the first two editions of Koch’s Synopsis Florae Germanicae et Helveticae 
(1835-44), Reichenbach, leones Florae Germanicae (1838), Moris, Flora Sardoa 
(1837-59), Bertoloni, Flora Italica (1833-54), Parlatore, Flora Italiana (1848- 
96), Brotero, Flora Lusitanica (1804), Willkomm and Lange, Prodromus 
Florae Hispanicae (1861-93), Host, Flora Austriaca (1827-31), Schlosser and 
Vukotinovic, Flora Croatica (1869), Visiani, Flora Dalmatica (1842-52) 
