y. By reference to p. 163
of the present volume the Virginian stemonitis is left as Rex assigned
it, and if the present variety be synonymous, it should be quoted there.
The treatment of the species _C. nigra_ in the second edition does not
establish such fact, nor with three varieties make for any increasing
clearness.

[38] It had seemed less necessary to retain the classic orthography in
this instance since De Bary and Rostafinski both use _Diachea_. But
modern scholarship is nothing if not meticulous; it is the fashion in
Latin still to keep the digraph, even to the vexation of all men. In the
same way when Bulliard wrote _leucopodia_, 'white stockings', he
doubtless meant to be exact.

[39] For this citation we are indebted to _Mr. Hugo Bilgram_.

ADDENDA

a. This volume is as we see, a descriptive list of the various forms of
the Myxomycetes in so far as these have come to the personal notice of
the writer.

Each form is designated, as is usual in discussing objects of the sort,
by a particular binomial name, followed, in abbreviated form, by the
name of the student or author who in describing the form in question
used the combination. Thus _Stemonitis splendens_ was first described by
Rostafinski, and the name he thus used is applicable to the form he
described, wherever found, and to _nothing else_.

The proper naming of any specimen would thus appear to be a very simple
matter. Such, however, is often not the case, particularly where we are
concerned with species long familiar to science. Such often have
received, at different times, and at the hands of the same author, or
certainly of different authors, different names, given for various
reasons; so that one who would refer to, or discuss, a single specimen
to-day finds himself often in great uncertainty, confronted by a
multitude of binomial combinations all thought to refer to the same
particular thing.

By general consent, of course, we strive to ascertain the oldest name on
the list; the first that is really and clearly applicable, and we write
all other names down as synonyms. In this volume a list of synonyms
often accompanies the description; precedes it, showing, year by year,
the history of the case; an abstract in fact of the title, as at last
approved. The preparation of such an abstract is very troublesome, but
is believed to be worth the trouble; must be made, indeed, if we are
ever in our discussions to be sure that when we speak