Bacteria and Viruses 115 



Recommendations 27\, 27k. Orthography and Gender of Names 



RECOMMENDATION 27j. Authors should give the etymology of new generic 

 names and also of new epithets when the meaning of these is not obvious. 

 RECOMMENDATION 27k. When it is necessary to choose between words 

 which have been validly published as names of taxa or as specific epithets 

 and which differ in spelling only because of faulty or alternative spelling of 

 Latin words, or because of faulty or alternative transliterations of Greek to 

 Latin, or because of alternative transfer of endings denoting gender or the 

 oblique cases, (particularly the genitive) from Greek to Latin, it is recom- 

 mended that choices be governed by the provisions of Appendix B to this 

 Code. 



ANNOTATIONS 



Recommendatioyi 27 j. Compliance with this recommendation might 

 well tend to reduce the ninnber of nonsense words in bacteriological 

 nomenclature, particularly nonsense specific epithets, in species names 

 such as Bacillus alholactis (meaning the Bacillus of white milk in- 

 stead of the intended white Bacilhis of milk) , or Bacillus thermo- 

 diastaticus (meaning the "thermally diastatic Bacillus," the intended 

 meaning probably being the "thermophilic and diastatic Bacillus") . 

 The student is surprised to find that Streptomyces novaecaesariae 

 means the "Streptomyces of New Jersey," that noveboracensis refers 

 to "New York," cantahrigensis to Cambridge and Hajiiia to Copen- 

 hagen. 



Possibly formation of hybrid names (nomina hybrida) such as 

 Brevibacterium, Acetobacter and Sarcinococcus would be less frequent 

 if the authors clearly stated that the hybrid word contravened a 

 nomenclatural recommendation. 



