SCIEXTIFIC NAMES F0B5I. 



149 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES.— I. FOBM. 



BY W. B. GEOVE, B.A. 



(Continued from page 124.*) 

 The third declension differs from the other two, and presents some 

 dif&culty. "Words of this class have many terminations, but they rarely 

 end in -a, -e, or -er, never in -um. It is chiefly those ending in -us 

 that can be mistaken. The peculiarities of the third declension are that 

 the genitive singular always ends in -is, and has very often one syllable 

 more than the nominative ; the plural ends in -a or -es, according as the 

 word is, or is not, neuter. It is an invariable rule that the plural of a 

 neuter word ends in -a. For most of the words of this class recourse 

 must be had to the dictionary, but the following table of the chief forma 

 may be useful. Notice that the true stem seldom appears in the 

 nominative, but may be obtained from the genitive by removing the 

 termination -is. Though there ai-e rules for determining the gender, the 

 only safe course is to refer to the dictionary. Examples of the fourth 

 and fifth declensions are added for the sake of completeness. 



Thus we have Carduus palustris, Viola palustris, but Comarum palmtre ; 

 Lotus major, Astrantia vuijor, but Arctium majus ; Ranunculus repens, 

 Linaria repens, and Trifolium repens ; as an example of the plural we may 

 take Rodentia, the rodent animals. 



There are many Greek words also in use, but in m.any or most cases 

 they are Latinised, and will come under the rules already given. Only 

 two, which do not, can be mentioned here. 



* Eekattjm in May Numbee (p. 124, bottom line.)— For " polyzoon," read 

 " polyzoan," after the analogy of entomostracan, infusorian, &c. 



