116 GENERAL SYSTEMATIC BACTERIOLOGY 



Comments. This rule has been too frequently disregarded by bac- 

 teriologists. In many cases this has come about through failure of the 

 one who first described an organism to give to it a specific name, or one 

 in the correct form. For example, Duclaux (1882) described an organ- 

 ism which he found associated with the production of slimy or ropy milk. 

 This he placed in his genus Actinobacter but without giving it a specific 

 name. In consequence this organism is commonly noted in literature 

 as Actinobacter du lait visqueux Duclaux, an impossible combination. 

 German writers furthermore have frequently changed the spelling of 

 Latin words from their Latin form, as Bacterium to Bakterium, Bacil- 

 lus to Bacillus, Streptococcus to Streptokokkus, in order to use them as 

 vernacular designations. In many cases after having accepted this 

 changed spelling, the fact is ignored that they have lost their status as 

 generic names and the words are used as though they were in correct 

 Latin form, as in the name Staphylokokkus pyogenes. German, French 

 and Italian authors have also shown a tendency to change the names of 

 families and of whole groups, from their correct Latin form, and yet con- 

 tinue to use them in a scientific and not merely a vernacular sense, as 

 Arthrobakteriaceen for Arthrobacteriaceae, Kokkaceen and Coccacees for 

 Coccaceae. 



Article 8. Nomenclature comprises two categories of names: (1) Names, or 

 rather terms, which express the nature of the groups comprehended one within 

 the other. (2) Names peculiar to each of the groups of plants that observation 

 has made known. 



Comments. The nature of the names noted under 1 and 2 will be 

 evident after a perusal of Chapters II and III respectively in which 

 these are discussed. 



Article 9. The rules and recommendations of botanical nomenclature apply to 

 all classes of the plant kingdom, reserving special arrangements for fossil plants 

 and non-vascular plants. 



Comments. A footnote to the code of 1905 states that the special 

 arrangements noted were to be taken up at the next International 

 Botanical Congress in 1910. These arrangements included "(1) Rules 

 bearing on special points in relation to the nature of fossils or lower 

 plants. (2) Lists of nomina conservanda for all divisions of plants other 

 than Phanerogams." At this meeting several rules relating primarily 

 to paleobotany and to the algae, fungi, hepatics, lichens and mosses 

 were adopted, but the question of the date of departure and other ques- 

 tions relating to the bacteria and certain other groups were reserved for 

 the International Congress which was to have met in London in 1915. 



