ORIGIN OF BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE 261 



cise designation termed a trivial or vulgar name, adopted by 

 Linnaeus to be used for convenience in place of the long unwieldy 

 descriptive phrase which was still retained as the old specific 

 name. 



In the Philosophia Botanica which appeared two years later 

 Linnaeus says : 5 "Nomina Trivialia forte admitti possunt modo, 

 quo in Pane suecico usus sum; constarent haec 



Vocabulo unico : 



Vocabulo libere undequaque desumto. 

 Ratione hac praecipue evicti, quod differentia 

 saepe longa evadit, ut non ubique commode usurpeturdein muta- 

 tioni obnoxia, no vis detectis speciebus" ("trivial names may be 

 used as I have used them in the Pan Suecus. These consist of 

 a single word chosen from any source whatever. We are con- 

 vinced of the value of this because descriptions of specific differ- 

 ences often become very long so that they cannot be conveniently 

 used eveywhere, and are subject to change if new species are 

 discovered.") 



As these trivial names are a wholly new feature in nomen- 

 clature and Linnaeus' principal contribution thereto, it is of in- 

 terest to consider their relations to the specific name in each 

 case and if possible to determine the source from which Linnaeus 

 took them. This can readily be done owing to the fact that 

 the names in the list in the Pan Suecus are numbered identically 

 with the same plants in the Flora Suecica, where not only the 

 specific name attributed to the plant by Linnaeus is given, but 

 also synonymous names of other botanists. A careful study of 

 the entire list shows that Linnaeus drew these trivial names from 

 four sources as follows: (1) Generic names used by earlier botan- 

 ists, 118 — 13.9 per cent; (2) Adopted from specific name, 365 — 

 43.2 per cent; (3) Composed from words used in specific name, 

 49 — 5.8 per cent; (4) Entirely new words, 312 — 36.9 per cent. 

 Although Linnaeus says that the trivial names may be chosen 

 from any source whatever, thus allowing for the use of purely 

 arbitrary names, which later came to be frequently employed, 



5 Linnaeus, C, Philosophia Botanica, Stockholm, p. 202, 1751. 



