March, 1906.] BOOK NOTICES. 53 



in gender with the generic name. We object to this. It is perhaps 

 easy to determine the gender of the old classical Latin names, but not 

 so those of Latinized Greek or barbarous generic names. Of these 

 there are already more than the pure Latin names, and we shall have 

 an increasingly larger proportion in the future. We regard it as far 

 simpler to write the specific name exactly as first proposed. 



We would note that by article 25 the definition of a genus by cita- 

 tion of type, without description, seems accepted, the rule stating that 

 a name must be published, accompanied by an indication or a defini- 

 tion or a description. But, as this applies also to specific names, we 

 object, on the ground that an " indication " is not a sufficient specific 

 description. 



Article 30 tells us how to determine the types of genera. This is 

 the most complicated set of recommendations we have seen. Both 

 the methods of elimination are endorsed, although it has been shown 

 that they are contradictory in their results, while the method of first 

 species is not even mentioned. We defy any two workers to arrive at 

 the same type for any complicated genus by using these rules and 

 working independently. If the recommendations and the discussion 

 be cut off, the rule itself is simple enough, being the plain historical 

 method advocated in these pages by Prout. The discussion here only 

 confuses an originally simple proposition ; but it serves to show into 

 what shape an apparently simple proposition can be twisted, and is a 

 valuable exposition, we should say, of what not to do. 



With these exceptions we find this presentation of this most recent 

 code to be excellent. We infer that the publication is generally 

 available from the statement that it will be sent to " nonpublishing 

 societies and individuals in case sufficient reason can be shown why 

 such societies or individuals should receive it," which statement we 

 find on the cover. Application should be made to the Surgeon Gen- 

 eral, U. S. Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service, Washington, 

 D. C. 



Monograph of the Bombycine Moths of North America, including their 

 transformations and origin of the larval markings and armature. 

 Part II. Family Ceratocampid.e:, Subfamily Ceratocampin.e. 

 By Alpheus Spring Packard. Memoirs of the National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences, vol. ix, pp. 1-149, plates I-LXI. 1905. 

 This valuable "work gives, in a wealth of detail, the life histories of 



