THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 25 



fusion to those who understand that language, and check lists and cata- 

 logues create the nomenclature of those who do not. To the argument 

 ' b " we say, while we confess what would otherwise be grammatical 

 errors are thus justified, it is impossible to look upon this family idea as 

 existing in fact. Gender may be arbitrary in some languages, but it is 

 . arbitrary to the individual word only. The sun may be considered mascu- 

 line, but then all suns are masculine. If Papilio be masculine, then all 

 Papiliones are masculine. And, taking the generic name as a family 

 name, so that promiscously masculine and feminine words may be joined 

 to it, there are already existing and universally received names which 

 could not thus be used — c. g, Pyrameis canlui, and all names, such as 

 Argyv.nis Edwardsii, named in honor of any one. If the specific name 

 is an individual name, it is indeclinable unless with the generic name. 

 And surely, then, these must be Pyrameis carduus and Argyunis Ed- 

 wardsius. Again, if specific names are given names, they should always 

 be begun with a capital letter — which in descriptive adjectives (more 

 common as names of the Geometrae and Nocture), no one ever thinks of 

 writing. And yet, again, it is impossible to get a noun or name idea in 

 specific names which is an adjective. We remember how the old Puritans 

 ransacked the Bible and their own brains to get expressive names for their 

 children ; but they gave the names in the noun form. It was Charity, not 

 Charitable — or at the most, if an adjective, it was grammatical in its use. 

 The adjective idea remains permanent. FIcpialus argenteo-maculalus is, it 

 is true, the Hcpialus called by that name ; but it is as well true that it is 

 the Hepialus that is silver-spotted. We may be dull, and that may be the 

 explanation, but we cannot comprehend that the names of insects are 

 arbitrary, as are the names which designate men and women. 



Can w r e not rightly make an appeal for the observance of these laws ? 



ANNUAL REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF 

 ONTARIO FOR THE YEAR 1878. 



The Annual Report of our Society to the Department of Agriculture 

 of Ontario has just issued from the press, and will be mailed to our mem- 

 bers in the course of a few days. 



