Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/517

 HORTUS BOISSIERIANUS. 483 species, and more specialised in the case of rare or local forms ; the literary references and synonyma are carefully selected ; a list of vernacular names of the more popular species, in the principal languages of the area of the Synopsis, is added after the Latin name ; the etymological derivation of the scientific names is given in foot-notes, with almost pedantic care and with scholarly accuracy ; finally, paragraphs containing critical, explanatory, or historical notes, showing a marvellous familiarity with the respec- tive literature, follow the descriptive text in small print. The author is rather a purist in linguistic questions, and sometimes over-erudite. One more feature of the Synopsis must be mentioned. Though not absolutely original, it is a new and very important departure in a work which may be expected to exercise in future a great influence on kindred books, and particularly on local floras. The author says, " The literary reference indicating where the name adopted in this work of a species, subspecies, race or variety appears for the first time, or the so-called author quotation is not placed at the head of the respective description, as hitherto usual, but in the paragraph devoted to the synonymy where, logically, its proper place is. Ernest H. L. Krause (Mecklenb. Flora, S. V.) has been right in pointing out that the old custom, though commendable in itself, has enticed ambitious people to create as many new names as possible, thus injuring the stability of scientific nomenclature." We do not believe that these ambitious people will stop their nefarious practice for a moment, because the author and his school do not quote them at the head of their descriptions, but a few lines lower down. It is, however, gratifying to see that the author quotation is reduced to what it ought to be, viz. a literary reference, and that there is no more talk of "justice" where correctness, precision, and the particular requirements of the case are all that is to be considered. More than one flora, undertaken on a base as elaborate and broad as this Synopsis, though perhaps no one on such modern principles, has been begun within the last decade, and then suddenly collapsed because the author had overrated the working power of an individual. We might fear a similar fate for Ascherson's great Synopsis, if we did not know that the preparations for the work have already proceeded far, and that care has been taken to meet eventualities which might otherwise bring it to a sudden close. 0. Staff. Hortus Boissierianus : Enumeration des Plantes cultivees en 1885 a VaUeyres (Vaud) et a la Pierriere (Chambesy, pres Geneve) par Eugene Autran et Th^iophile Durand : preface de M. F. Cr^pin. Geneve et Bale : Georg & Cie. 8vo, pp. xi, 572. Price 12 fr. This well-printed volume is more than its title implies ; for, besides the enumeration of species, a brief bibliography is attached to each, with a note as to its nativity and distribution, and the date of first publication. The genera are similarly treated, with an