132 BRITISH BEES. 



for the describer has not thereby lost his rights, but 

 revives to them with all due justice upon the cessation 

 of this coma. The really culpable among such de- 

 scribers are those who neglect to look around them to 

 ascertain what has been done, and this course is some- 

 times illicitly adopted to obtain a fleeting and mere- 

 tricious fame, by the description of ostensibly new species, 

 which critical investigators soon detect to have been long 

 since known and very ably described. 



Thus, a complete synonymy, which can almost only 

 come within the province of a monograph, would give, 

 chronologically, the entire history of a species under all 

 the names it has been known by in the several works in 

 which it has been published. Nature is so uniform and 

 stable that Aristotle's descriptions can be clearly recog- 

 nized, therefore there is no fear that whatever may 

 have been synonymously, but yet correctly recorded of 

 the economy of a species, can possibly be lost when once 

 registered in the archives of science. 



The working out of a correct synonymy is an ungrate- 

 ful task of much labour, for few appreciate it, and not 

 many use it, although when thoroughly elaborated it is 

 so extremely valuable. 



A further rule in nomenclature is, that the generic 

 name must always be a substantive ; and it is always 

 desirable that the specific name should be an adjective. 

 In the event of the imposition of a proper name, which is 

 sometimes done to record a private friendship, but im- 

 properly so, for it is a distinction due only to promoters 

 of the science, the genitive form must be adopted. 



The next grade in ascent from the species is invariably 

 the GENUS, for subgenera, like varieties in species, are not 

 uniformly present, but are mere contingencies, even if 

 they do properly exist. 



