G6 HISTORY OP BOTANY. 



26. If new generic names are wanted it must first be 

 ascertained whether no one among the existing synonyms is 

 applicable. 



27. If an old genus is divided into several new ones the 

 old name will remain with the species that is best known. 



28. The termination and euphony of generic names are to 

 be consulted as far as practicable. 



29. Long, awkward, disagreeable names are to be avoided, 

 as Calophyllodendron of Vaillant, Coriotragematodendros 

 of Plukenet, and the like. 



30. The names of classes and orders are subject to the 

 same rules as those of genera. They ought always to 

 express some essential and characteristic marks. 



31. The names of both classes and orders must always 

 consist of a single word, and not of sentences. 



Lindley remarks of these canons* that they are undoubt- 

 edly excellent in many respects, that we must attribute 

 much of the greater perfection of Natural History, since the 

 time of Linneus, to the adoption of them, and that they are 

 constantly appealed to by the school of Linneus as a 

 standard of language from which no departure whatever 

 is allowable. He continues : — " It is, however, necessary to 

 remark, that notwithstanding the undoubted excellence of 

 many of these rules, yet there are others adherence to which 

 is often out of the question, and which have indeed fallen 

 wholly into disuse. It seems to be an admitted principle 

 that it is of little real importance what name an object 

 bears, provided it serves to distinguish that object from 

 everything else. This being so it will follow that Nos. 7, 9, 

 11, 12, 14 and 16 of the Linnsean canons are either 

 frivolous or unimportant, or at least that no person is 

 bound, either in reason or by custom, to observe them. 

 This is particularly apparent in considering the practice 



^' * Introduction to Botany.' 



