108 The Scottish Naturalist. 



Lamiatse ; for the Lamiums are a genus quite representative of the 

 order, and, by designating the group Lamiatse, we carry out the 

 general principle of ordinal naming consistently — just as we do so 

 when we supplant Cruciferae by Brassicacese, or Composite by 

 Asteracese. 



Such, then, are the principles applicable to Terminology, and 

 such are their bearings on classification. It only now remains to 

 add that much has still to be done before the classificatory sciences 

 can be said to have made full and thorough application of them. 



THE RELATIONSHIP OP PALAEONTOLOGY TO BIOLOGY. 

 By R. J. HARVEY GIBSON, M.A. 



EACH of the two great departments of Natural Science, known 

 as Palaeontology and Biology, includes a vast array of facts, 

 connected by a series of hypotheses for which the facts afford foun- 

 dations of greater or of less stability. The facts have been ascer- 

 tained, and the hypotheses have been advanced in both depart- 

 ments by a host of observers, amongst whom we may number 

 some of the most famous men in history. 



It is not my intention to investigate the accuracy of the facts, 

 or the validity of the inferences, either in Palaeontology or in 

 Biology. Rather I desire to accept as beyond question the ac- 

 curacy and validity of both series of phenomena, and to draw cer- 

 tain general conclusions, bearing more especially on the relation- 

 ship of the two series to each other. 



Even at the risk of being tedious, it is always preferable, I think, 

 in any attempt to demonstrate some new aspect of scientific in- 

 quiry, to proceed from the known to the unknown ; and to lead 

 up to new conclusions, whatsoever they may be, through conclu- 

 sions well established, rather than to proceed at once to the ex- 

 position of previously unexplained phenomena. 



First then — What is Palaeontology ? 



From a host of definitions, scattered through the various geologi- 

 cal text-books, I select that of Dr. Archibald Geikie given in his 

 valuable text-book of Geology, 1882. It is as follows : — 



"Palaeontology treats of the structure, affinities, classification, 



