GENERAL SKETCH OF ACALEPHS. 25 



They have, however, received this name before the structure of 

 animals was understood, when all animals inhabiting the waters 

 were indiscriminately called fishes, and it is now in such general 

 use that it would be difficult to change it. The name Medusa is 

 derived from their long tentacular appendages, sometimes wound 

 up in a close coil, sometimes thrown out to a great distance, 

 sometimes but half unfolded, and aptly enough compared to the 

 snaky locks of Medusa. Their third and oldest appellation, that of 

 Acalephs, alluding to their stinging or nettling property, and 

 given to them and like animals by Aristotle, in the first instance, 

 but afterwards applied by Cuvier in a more limited sense to 

 Jelly-fishes, is the most generally accepted, and perhaps the 

 most appropriate of all. 



The subject of nomenclature is not altogether so dry and 

 arid as it seems to many who do not fully understand the signifi- 

 cance of scientific names. Not only do they often express with 

 terse precision the character of the animal or plant they signify, 

 but there is also no little sentiment concealed under these jaw- 

 breaking appellations. As seafaring men call their vessels after 

 friends or sweethearts, or commemorate in this way some impres- 

 sive event, or some object of their reverence, so have naturalists, 

 under their fabrication of appropriate names, veiled many a grace- 

 ful allusion, either to the great leaders of our science, or to some 

 more intimate personal affection. The Linncea borealis was well 

 named after his famous master, by a disciple of the great Nor- 

 wegian naturalist ; G-oethea semperflorens, the ever-blooming, is 

 another tribute of the same kind, while the pretty, graceful little 

 Lizzia, named by Forbes, is one instance among many of a more 

 affectionate reference to nearer friends. The allusions of this 

 kind are not always of so amiable a character, however, witness 

 the " Buffonia," a low, noxious weed, growing in marshy places, 

 and named by Linnaeus after Buffon, whom he bitterly hated. 

 Indeed, there is a world of meaning hidden under our zoological 

 and botanical nomenclature, known only to those who are inti- 

 mately acquainted with the annals of scientific life in its social as 

 well as its professional aspect. 



