BIHANG TILL K. sv. VET.-AKAD. HANDL. BAXD 13. AFD. lY. N:0 5. 31 



rejected by tlie <Håerent kinds of cattle, from observations 

 made bv himself and some of liis disciples, and the noting 

 dowu of wliicb no doubt bad been facilitated bv lettins: a 

 single word, »epitbeton quoddam», take tbe place of the »no- 

 men specificum». To tbis dissertation be refers in tbe eigbtb 

 cbapter of tbe Pbilosopbia Botanioa, wbere be lavs down the 

 rulcs in virtue of wbicb the »nomen specificnm», containing 

 the »notas essentiales differentiae», bas been developed into that 

 most efficient vebicde of svstematic order, the diao-nosis, now 

 faUen into disuse. »Tbe trivial names», be says, »for which 

 there exist no ndes, may perbaps be admitted in tbe manner 

 in which I have nsed them in tbe Pan Svecus. Thev should 

 consist in a single word, taken freely, from anywhere. I have 

 come to tbis from seeing that tbe differentia frequently be- 

 comes inconveniently long, and is subject to alterations necessi- 

 tated by the continual discoveries of new species.» He shows, 

 by way of example, bow the five species of Pyrola in the 

 Flora Svecica mio-bt be distino-uished bv trivial names, and 

 leaves tbe subject with the remark that »the names given by 

 bis predeoessors were properly nomina trivialia, and those 

 given by the oldest Botanists maxime trivialia>. It is evi- 

 dently with great caution and circuraspection that he proceeds 

 to accomplish the great reform, lest »even trne botanists should 

 feel induced ever to propose a nomen triviale alone witbout 

 a sufficient difterentia spccifica, and thus the science be caiised 

 to relapsc into tbe pristina barbaries». With tbis warning he 

 takes the great step, and in tbe species Plantarum, 1753, and 

 tbe Museum Adolpbi Frederici 17r)4, raiscs the »nomen triviale» 

 from the bottom of tbe references to preceding autbors wbere 

 be left it in the Fauna Svecica of 1746, to a bigher position, 

 on a level with the »nomen specificum», but still .in margine»'), 

 and there he lets it remain in tbe Systema Naturs ed. 10, 1758, 

 ed. 12, 1767, and tbe M. L. U. 1764, only no longer printed in 

 small italics. In tlu' meantimc bowever, in the Flora Svecica 

 ed. 2, 1755, he bad allowed tbe »uonien triviale) to leave the 

 margin and take possession of its due place next to tbe ge- 

 neric name, between tbis and tbe »nomen specilicum>, but still 

 witliin parentheses, nud it was onlv in 1761, in tbe second 

 edition of tbe Fauna Svecica, that freed from such restriction 

 it attained tbe position desioned for it from tbe besinninjx- 

 ') Species Plantavuni. Holmiic 1758, I, Lectori iisquo. 



