INTRODUCTION. 15 



ever, as this word has a (Hfferent usao^e in biology, it can not be employed 

 with another meaning. It is therefore changed to homccotype ( = similar 

 type). 



Thomas,'^ in regard to this term (homotypej, says that it " might 

 suita])ly be employed for any specimens that had been compared with 

 the type." The term is a very useful one, and large museums now have 

 abinidant opportunities to mark such material. The writer, therefore, 

 will defnie it as follows: 



A homceotype is an}- supplementary specimen that has ])een carefull\- 

 compared with the primary types by any worker of recognized standing 

 in the class of organisms to which the material belongs. 



IdkoTYPE (new). — Dr. vS. S. Buckmau has called attention to oilier 

 typical specimens which he calls ideotypes. The.se are the sj)ecimens 

 from any place except the original localit>', named by an author of a 

 species after publication. When similar .specimens are from the orig- 

 inal locality they are metatypes. 



TYPE DRAWINGS. 



Pkotograph (new). - Buckman suggests this term for the original 

 figure or figures illu.strating a holotype. The original description is the 

 protolog. 



SvNTiiETOGRAPii (new). — Authors occasionally base a new .species 

 upon .several .specimens, illustrating the form by a drawing which sub.se- 

 (pieiU authors a.ssume to be ba.sed on a single individual, but which in 

 reality is a composite figure. Buckman'^ states: "Notice may be taken 

 of the cases wherein a figure has been made from a coml)ination of two 

 specimens. This practice would easih* lead to a nonidentification of the 

 tj'pes unless the facts had been carefulh* noted. It is an undesirable 

 practice." 



When no type is .selected by the original author, it has become the 

 custom for subsequent workers to accept as the holotype the specimen 

 which had been delineated, the delineation being the protograph. But 

 when it happens that the delineation has been drawn from more than 

 one specimen, such a composite figure .should be di.stingui.shed as a 

 SynTiiktograph; and the .specimens from which the figure was made 

 become cotypes. The term is applicable only to the illu.stration. The 

 making of such drawings to-day is rare, but in the earlier days of 

 paleontolog}' this was not the ca.se. The practice is to be condemned, 

 but a term is needed for such drawings as have been made. 



REPRODUCTIONS OF TYPE SPECIMENS. 



In 1897 Schuchert proposed the term plastotype for any artificial 

 specimen molded directly from a primary type. There are many .speci- 

 mens of this kind in existence, cast directly from primary or .secondary 



a Science, Sept. 24, 1897, p. 486. b Proc. Cotteswold Nat. Field Club, XIII, 1899, p. 134. 



