NOMENCLATURE. 25 



but no one has for that reason compelled us to go back to the original 

 meaning of the word, and, furthermore, no one expects it. Our only choice 

 seems to be to quote an author as we find him, and give him all the benefit 

 of his spelling, both for the generic and specific name as well as the gender 

 of the latter. If we find, as is so frequent, Diadema, Echinodiscus .... with 

 feminine species, Diadema longispina, etc., or Salmacis * sulcatus, Echinodis- 

 cus aurita, etc., we may correct the gender, but our office must end there. 



It seems to be equally available to consider a proper name (Peron) as 

 Latinicized into ius (Peronius), making the specific name Peronii, or to us 

 when the case requires it ; or else to consider the name as indeclinable, and 

 add i to it for the specific name. Changes made, as is frequently done from 

 one mode of viewing the subject rather than the other, seem inappropriate 

 for reasons made sufficiently apparent previously. 



To incorporate new material into recognized genera simply from descrip- 

 tions, or even with the help of figures, is almost always an impossibility. 

 The time has come when such work, at least in monographs, should be 

 discountenanced, and no recognition paid to the numerous nominal changes, 

 a mere shuffling of cards, so frequent in our Zoological literature. Let them 

 receive the distinction they deserve as more or less successful guesses, and let 

 due recognition be given to work based upon an examination of the originals 

 or of authentic specimens. If the practice of showing by (*) or (!) what we 

 know from personal examination were more uniformly adopted, much time 

 would be saved in discussing subjects about which neither party has any accu- 

 rate data. This plan has been followed throughout this monograph, and the 

 (!) — Echinus tuberculatus ! Lam. — means that I have seen the specimens 

 themselves, or what are considered as such. When there is reason to doubt 

 the authenticity of the specimen, the question-mark denotes it(!?) — Clda- 

 ris annellata! ? Gray. The same notation is also used after the locality, — 

 Sandwich Islands ! 



It was indeed "a true Pandora's box let loose upon science" when the prac- 

 tice of adding the authority after a name was adopted. Not that we can 

 expect even specialists to remember who are the authorities for any partic- 

 ular combination, but this notation, to be worth anything, must mean some- 

 thing, and particularly refer us to some place where information on the sub- 

 ject can be obtained. When I write Echinus ovum Lam., I mean that 

 in some work of Lamarck's he has mentioned a species (he may have de- 



* A Nymph. 



