18 Transactions of the Society. 



Nature's products, and there was mingled with this feeling of 

 innocent vanity the noble desire to contribute to the progress 

 of science." ^ In referring to the services rendered to science by 

 workers who thus contributed to his collections d'Orbigny observes 

 somewhat naively : " It is on this account that I have with 

 pleasure introduced into science, as an ineffaceable testimony of 

 my gratitude, the names of many modest scientists whose perse- 

 vering and indefatigable researches have so powerfully contributed 

 to guaranteeing the results of my own." ^ 



He changed his own names for remarkably insufficient reasons, 

 witness his Cristellaria (Bohulioia) cultrata from the Adriatic,^ 

 which became canariensis from the Canary Islands,* and suh- 

 cidtrata from South America, it being stated in a footnote that 

 the name " had to be changed because he had found the species 

 in Patagonia " ; and also his Pulninulina {Rotalina) trunca- 

 tulinoides from the Canaries,^ which became micheliniana from 

 the Paris chalk ^ (see, however, the note on the Paris Chalk 

 Memoir, p. 54). In the Cuba Memoir, on the same principle, 

 he changed the name of Planorbidina mediterranensis to P. vulgaris 

 on the ground that the species was to be found elsewhere than in 

 the Mediterranean.^ 



From what has preceded it will be readily appreciated that the 

 curious inquirer into d'Orbignyan nomenclature is apt to find 

 himself hopelessly lost, but the inquiry may almost be described 

 as a hobby by itself, and it is far from uninteresting to follow the 

 advice of Captain Cuttle when opportunity serves for the identifi- 

 cation of these persons, apart from the genera and species to 

 which d'Orbigny gave their names. I plead guilty to having 

 indulged in this desultory amusement, and I have embodied a 

 selection of my notes made over an extended period in Appendix E. 

 Latreille, in his " Eapport " upon the " Tableau Methodic[ue," 

 expresses the regret (p. 25) that d'Orbigny did not add " a Linnean 

 phrase to his trivial and specific names," but he rightly observes 

 that the indications which these would have furnished were 

 reserved for d'Orbigny's " grand ouvrage " — ^^which never saw the 

 lioht, save as is hereinafter set forth. ^ 



» XVI., p. 831. 



" XV., p. Ivii. In his " Mollusques vivants et fossiles "he says, " Je citei;fi,i 

 toujours avec le plus grand soiu les personnes auxquelles je devrai les moindres 

 communications, afin de faire connaitre leur collaboration " (XL, p. 12). 



3 I., p. 287, No. 1. " VIII., p. 127. ' VIII., p. 132. 



^ X., p. 31. This being a common form of world-wide distribution, the con- 

 fusion is a serious one, but the two names are now understood by all Rhizopodists 

 to be interchangeable, viicheliniana having been very universally used for many 

 years, and by Brady in the ' Challenger ' Monograph (see Brady, op. cit. , p. 695, 

 and XXVI. (1909) p. 685). ' VII., p. 85 (note). 



* He adds prophetically that "circumstances seem to adjourn the execution 

 of this work to a far distant time," announcing the appointment of d'Orbigny to 

 the post of naturaliste-voyageur to the museum and his impending departure for 

 South America. 



