THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



NATURAL HISTORY, 



NOVEMBER, 1833. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Observations on the Nomenclature of Divisions in System- 

 atical Arrangements of the Subjects of Natural History, more 

 particularly in reference to " Some Remarks on Genera and Sub' 

 genera, and on the Principles on which they should be established ; 

 by the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, A.M. F.L.S.;" published in p. 385 

 — 390. By Edward Newman, Esq. F.L.S. &c. 



Sir, 



In submitting a few remarks on the establishment of divi- 

 sions in natural history, I beg to disclaim all idea of disputing 

 with Mr. Jenyns the views he has so ably set forth. My 

 sole object in writing, at a moment when his luminous paper 

 is fresh in the minds of your readers, is, that I may entwine 

 a few light thoughts of my own around his more solid and 

 valuable ones, as the humble and dependent vine clings for 

 support to the limbs of the giant oak. 



Among the excellent observations which are presented in 

 the commencement of the learned gentleman's essay* the 

 following appears to me to be particularly valuable : — " All 

 groups bearing the same title should be groups of the same 

 value." I could wish Mr. Jenyns had gone still farther, and 

 had shown how very remote this is from being the case at 

 present, in any of our arrangements. If we dip, in ever so 

 cursory a manner, into the orders Ferae # , ^ccipitres, and. 

 Coleoptera, as established by Linnaeus, we shall find that 

 each of the first two contains closely allied animals, which 

 possess a habit and character common to them all ; while the 



* Since differently named : Camassiers of Cuvier. The contents of the 

 groups are but little altered. 



Vol. VI. — No. 36. n 



