152 SCIENTIFIC NAMES FORM. 



can be obtained from comparison with other wox-ds be neglected. Tlius 

 the common adjectival terminations, -osus, -ilis, -inus, -amis,-arius, -citus, 

 &c., can be recognised, and their naeaning arrived at by the consideration 

 of EngUsh words of a similar ending. Moreover, if one or more 

 syllables are found to occur in many different words, it may be presumed 

 that they form a root ; compare Cardium, Cardita, Cardiomorpha, and 

 with the latter Calhmorpha ; Apteryx, Micropterj'x, and Microspore ; 

 Diplacanthus, and Acanthoides. These parts should then be looked out 

 separately; but there will often be a considerable amount of search 

 required, and after all there will remain some, the derivation and 

 meaning of which none but a practised investigator could discover, not to 

 mention those which are incorrectly formed, and have in their present 

 shape no meaning whatever. The chief difficulty lies in the Greek rootsi 

 for investigating which it is necessary to bo acquainted not only with 

 the value of the letters of the Greek alphabet, but also with the con- 

 ventional changes which are made in expressing a Greek word in Enghsh 

 letters. The chief are given below : — k is generally represented by c, v 

 by y, ov by ?i, n by i, ai by a;, and oi by ce. The last two are often 

 further degi-aded into e, as the word becomes more Anghcised, e.g., 

 palasozoic, paleozoic. Here again, of late years, innovations have been 

 made, the result partly of carelessness, partly of a desire to keep more 

 nearly the supposed ancient pronunciation. Thus dioeciovis and 

 monoecious are sometimes written dioicous and mouoicous, the oi being 

 represented by oi, instead of by a; ; similarly the first syllable of Cainozoio 

 is really the same as the last syllable of Eocene. 



It may, perhaps, illustrate the analytic process of finding the 

 derivation of a given word, if we show the reverse, synthetic method of 

 forming a word to represent a given idea. Thus, suppose we wish to 

 invent a generic name which shall mean " cleft-tooth," we find the Latin 

 for "cleft" is fss-tts, for "tooth" dens. As the dens is to go last, we 

 shall use, not the true stem dent-, but the nominative case ; placing the 

 two syllables together, and inserting i, we get Fissidens, the name of a 

 genus of mosses which has the peristome-teeth cleft half-way down. 

 Then comes the question, what is to be the gender of Fissidens. On 

 this point the rule is clear and precise : it miist have the same gender 

 as the last component, i.e., since dejw is masculine, Fissidens is masculine 

 also. If, however, any termination is added, which generally ends in 

 -us, -a, or -Mm, it is mascuUne, feminine, or neuter accordingly. For 

 instance, from the same word dens we get Deutaria, which is feminine. 



There are too many words in scientific language which are not 

 formed according to these principles, but stiU the vast majority obeys 

 them, and it is for this reason that they concern all students of science, 

 for upon them in gi-eat measure depends the pronunciation, as has been 

 already pointed out in one case, and will be further illustrated in the 

 followng papers. In conclusion, it may be added that the rules have 

 been founded in every case upon the practice of the best authorities, and, 

 though many points have been omitted for want of space, it is bchevod 

 that all the chief variations of usage have been included. 



