ill!Ill

TERMINOLOGY AND CLASSIFICATION OF DIATOMS. 103
What new idea have they introduced? They
have but wasted the best
of their time and energy in seeking minutiae which they alone perceive,
and which, after all, only result in the overburdening
of a nomenclature
which is already very embarrassing. I feel very tempted to apply the
following cruel adage to the results of their patient
prceterea nihil?
labour: Verba et voces
Let the diatomist reflect, and he will see that what Mr. Naudin has also
said with regard to higher plants (in which comparison can easily be made
with the naked eye) is even still more applicable to diatoms, which are
probably affected by a good many more influences than we are ever likely
to know of. When one has observed for the number of years that Mr.
Naudin and myself have if I may be permitted to join my name with
his the varieties of forms in the cultivation of Phanerogams, one is less
inclined to create a fresh name for every slight modification in the valves
of diatoms. It will be noticed that these innumerable forms have only
been created by specialists who have not been accustomed to the study
of the higher plants, whilst Walker-Arnott, Professor of Botany at Edinburgh,
and de Brebisson, who are both of them eminent florists and Phaneroga-
mists, have created new species but sparingly.