126 THE CHARACTERS OF GENERA. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE CHARACTERS OF GENERA. 



THE well-known meaning of the words generic 

 and specific may serve, in the absence of a more 

 precise definition, to express the relative impor- 

 tance of those groups of animals called Genera 

 and Species in our scientific systems. The Genus 

 is the more comprehensive of the two kinds of 

 groups, while the Species is the most precisely 

 defined, or at least the most easily recognized, 

 of all the divisions of the Animal Kingdom. 

 But neither the term Genus nor Species has 

 always been taken in the same sense. Genus es- 

 pecially has varied in its acceptation, from the 

 time when Aristotle applied it indiscriminately 

 to any kind of comprehensive group, from the 

 Classes down to what we commonly call Genera, 

 till the present day. 



But we have already seen, that, instead of 

 calling all the more comprehensive divisions by 

 the name of Genera, modern science has applied 

 special names to each of them, and we have now 

 Families, Orders, Classes, and Branches above 



