lV PREFACE. 
Another source of additions to the original list has been furnished 
by Mr. Hodgson, who being apprehensive that the wnelassical 
names which he formerly used to designate his genera should be 
superseded by some of those innovators who are always ready to 
seize on a pretext for appropriating the credit due to others, has 
given to the same genera a series of more classical names, with the 
view of guarding himself from plunder. In accordance with esta- 
blished practice, however, I regard the names first given, notwith- 
standing the anathema which has been pronounced against them by 
some of our lawgivers, as sacred, and have quoted the subsequent 
series only as their synonyma. 
To the Linnean genera I have added, in this Appendix, the date 
of their establishment, as far as I could ascertain it with precision. 
Some objections have been made to my having recurred to the 
generic names used by Linnzeus previously to 1760, because seven 
or eight names are thereby transposed from the position which they 
have for many years occupied. The Prince of Canino has set the 
example of considering the period when specific names were uni- 
versally applied by Linneus as the epoch from whence the binomi- 
nal nomenclature takes its date; and I venture to regard the year 
1735, when the same great man published his first list of genera, as 
the epoch of the real establishment of genera in their modern sense. 
Acting upon this principle, I cannot but go back to the names em- 
ployed in his earlier works, and also to the work of Mcehring, not 
certainly drawn from the “dusty shelves,” where it had remained 
“forgotten for a century,” but to which repeated references have 
been made by others as well as myself. With this limitation as 
to date, I regard the law of priority as admitting of no exceptions ; 
and it has been my earnest endeavour throughout my work to 
adopt it to the full extent, without suffering any consideration to 
interfere with its application. It is only by strictly and unde- 
viatingly adhering to this rule that uniformity of nomenclature 
can be attained. 
