272, SOIENTIFIC NAMES—PRONUNCIATION. 
Oidium, antheridium, pistillidium, gonidium, etc., is incorrect. On 
referring to any work which professes to give the origin of these words, it 
will be found somewhat like this :—Gonidium, from gonos, seed, and eidos, 
form. But in that case it must be gono-idium, as I have explained ante 
Vol. I., p. 150. The fact is that these words are diminutives, an anther- 
idium meaning strictly ‘‘a little anther,” oidium “ a little egg,” and so 
on. In the same way the name of a genus of spiders, Theridion, though 
stated by Staveley to mean “resembling a beast of prey,” really means 
‘‘a little beast of prey,” as may easily be seen by comparing it with the 
actual Greek words kunidion, ‘“ alittle dog,” and thwridion, * a little door.” 
-olus, -téilus, etc., as Sa’molus, Gla’diolus, Py’rola, Mi’mulus, Inula ; 
exc. Iu’/lus. These are generally diminutives, thus Gladiolus means 
‘¢ a little sword.” 
-icus,.-dcus, etc., as Lu‘mbricus, Beto’nica, Sta/tice, Doro’nicum, 
Di‘psacus, A’phaca, Tara’xacum ; exc. Urti’ca, Myri’ca, Eri’ca, Verbena/ca, 
Pastina’ca ; Hypericum should also be accented on the penult, it is said, 
but on rather doubtful grounds, and custom renders Hype’ricum preferable. 
-stoma, -stomum, *‘ a mouth,” as Cyclo’stoma, A’stomum. 
-gonus, etc., ‘an angle,” as Poly’gonum. 
-ptéron, -ptéryx, etc., “a wing,” as Di’ptera, Micro’pteryx, Thely’pteris, 
Proto’pterus. 
-poda, etc., ‘a foot,” as Cephalo’poda, Cope’poda, Macro’podus. 
-odon, -odus, ‘a tooth,” as Leo’ntodon, Cera’todon, The’codus. 
-trichum, etc., ‘a hair,” as Lepto’trichum, Calli’triche. 
In addition to these it must be remembered that the inserted 7 or o 
in compound words is short; this, however, only becomes important 
when the last component consists of only one syllable. There are many 
words ending in -pus, ‘a foot,’ which come under this head, and are 
frequently mispronounced, as lLy’copus, Orni’thopus, Lo’phopus, 
Ma/’cropus, Coro’nopus, Campy’lopus, Cy’stopus. 
Sometimes a difficulty is found about placing the accent in ‘‘ compli- 
mentary ” names, and here a little latitude is undoubtedly permissible. 
But perhaps the practice which has the most authority in its favour is 
that which places the accent generally on the penult, as in Watso’ni, 
Graha/mi, Rober’ti, Colema/nni, but on the antepenult in all which end 
in -eri or -ii, as Fo’rsteri, Bre’weri, Ga/llii, Hichho’rnii. In the latter case 
the vi is pronounced é-eye, not eye-eye. In complimentary generic names 
the accent is placed on the syllable preceding the termination, -a, -ea, or 
-ia, as Liste’ra, Grevi’/llea, Hooke’ria. In order to tell how to accent such 
words as Lastrea, Saussurea, we must first know their origin. If they 
are formed on the analogy of Ostre’a, Centaure’a, the e, which represents 
a Greek diphthong, must be long; but if the e merely represents an 
unaccented part of the name of some naturalist, to whom the genus is 
dedicated, as Greville, Saussure, etc., it would necessarily be short, being 
used instead of the more usual i in order to retain the form of the word. 
Thus Brownia and Brownea would commemorate respectively Brown and 
Browne, but there would be no ground for making a distinction in the 
pronunciation. 
[To BE CONTINUED. ] 
“ 
e 
Se 
ata. 2 
