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Nomenclature

When anyone for the first time refers a newly discovered species to a genus, he gives the species a specific name and appends his own name or an abbreviation of it as the authority, thus, Bryum argenteum, L. means that Linnaeus referred a species to Bryum and gave it the specific name argenteum and that his classification has not been changed.

If a plant has been referred by one man to a certain genus that later is proved by another man to belong to a different genus, the name or abbreviation of the first author is placed in parenthesis and followed by that of the second author thus:--Ramalina ceruchis (Ach.) De Not., means that De Notaris placed the species ceruchis in its proper genus Ramalina after Acharius had placed it in another genus (Borrera).