OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 91 



V. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE GENERIC NAMES 

 PROPOSED FOR BTJTTERFLIi:S : 



A CONTRIBUTION TO SYSTEMATIC NOMENCLATURE. 



By Samuel H. Scddder. 

 Presented, Is'ov. 11, 1S74. 



Botanicus mihi hio dicitur is, qui genera naturalia observare inlelligit 

 Botanici (nee minus Zoologici) autera nomine indignum judico Curiosum, qui de 

 generibus sollicitus non est. — Linne, Pli'dos. hotan. 



Nomina si pereunt. perit et cognitio rerum. — Fabhicius, Philos. entom. 



Three years a^^o, in preparing my Systematic Revision of North 

 American r>utterflies, 1 first became fully aware of the extraordinary 

 diversity of use of certain generic names in this group of insects ; and 

 I endeavored, by an historical study of the subject, to satisfy my own 

 mind of the proper manner in ■which they ought to be used. The 

 results of this study were published in the paper alluded to ; but in 

 only a few cases, and then in the briefest manner, was the process 

 stated by whicl) a conclusion was reached. A month or so before the 

 issue of that paper, the late Mr. G. R. Crotch published in the Cistula 

 Eutomolojiica the results of an exactly similar study, based upon the 

 same principles, but confined to an examination of those genera of 

 buttertlies which had been proposed previous to the publication of 

 Iliibners Yerzeichniss bekannter Schmettlinge. The process was in 

 this case given, but. as it seems to me, by an unsatisfactory method, 

 and cue in which the individual opinion of the author often affectetl 

 the result without the reader's cognizance. 



My own i)a])er was prepared under very unfavorable circumstances ; 

 and I therefore determined to revise its conclusions df. novo, and to 

 extend tlie study to the entire group of butterflies, as the onlv way in 

 which accuracy and precision could be attained. The result is given 

 in the present pa])er. The historical metliod is chosen as the most 

 satisfactory one, the use of each genei'ic name being traced from its 

 first proposal down to the year 1874. The entire body of entomological 



