Bacteria and Viruses 1 1 9 



Rule 28. Orthography and Gender of Names 



The gender of compound generic names having -bacter as the 

 final component is fixed as masculine by Opinion 3 of the Judicial 

 Commission (see Appendix C) . A request for an Opinion was based 

 upon the fact that some authors regarded such names as neuter (per- 

 haps as a result of confusion with generic names ending in -bac- 

 terium) , others considered them to be masculine. 



Rule 28 (c) . Most Latin names of plants are feminine. This prece- 

 dent led to the Recommendation both in bacteriology and botany 

 that new names of genera derived from the names of persons should 

 be put into feminine form. While the Zoological Code indicates 

 equal acceptability for generic names of words from personal names 

 with endings indicating any one of the three genders, nevertheless 

 in most cases generic names in zoology thus derived have been given 

 a feminine ending. In bacteriology most generic names of this type 

 are formed regularly either from personal names, as in Escherichia, 

 or by addition of a feminine diminutive as in Pasteurella. Even 

 names not regularly formed, as Ricolesia usually indicate their gender 

 by the ending. 



