52 NOMENCLATURE. 



himself, contrary to his own wise laws. Genera 

 have also been dedicated to abundance of persons, 

 who have no claim to this honour. Corrupt names, 

 composed of other generic appellations, already es- 

 tablished, though strictly and judiciously prohibited 

 by all classical botanists, have here and there been 

 introduced. Of these the worst of all are made up 

 of two such established names; as Calamagrostis. 

 Future general writers on Botany, of competent au- 

 thority, must reform these abuses. No authority can 

 sanction their continuance. If any indulgence be 

 allowed, it may perhaps be in favour of a few well- 

 sounding generic names of barbarous origin ; for 

 there can be no question that Pliny, and even purer 

 Latin writers, would have adopted such names, pro- 

 perly modified, had they treated of the new plants 

 of foreign countries. 



The generic name being fixed, each Species must 

 also be designated by an appropriate concise appel- 

 lation, of a single word if possible. This should be 

 either a characteristic adjective, expressive of the 

 character, aspect, colour, quality, or use of the Spe- 

 cies; or of some substantive, not necessarily agreeing 

 in gender with the generic name, and therefore al- 

 ways beginning with a capital letter, by which some 

 circumstance in the history of the plant, or some 

 synonym, may be recorded. 



Important or permanent Varieties (74) may, with 

 propriety, be noticed. These are conveniently 



