116 Lord Rothschild on Naming of Local Races, etc. 



As to the point he raises that anything lower than a 

 " species " should not be named, I consider it raises directly 

 the fundamental question of the purpose and convenience 

 of " Nomenclature." 



Surely the following illustration should clinch the argu- 

 ment. Of the butterfly Colias fieldii there are two geogra- 

 phical races — one the Indo-Burmese race, which is smaller 

 and paler and is the typical race, and a much larger and 

 brighter Chinese race. Now surely it is much more concise 

 and comprehensive to say Colias fieldii chinensis than to 

 say " the larger and more brightly-coloured chinese 

 race op Colias fieldii." 



Again, if the term Colias hyale ab. nigra is used, it is 

 more convenient than the sentence, " the black aberra- 

 tion op Colias hyale." 



It is to be regretted, I agree, that some authors, such 

 as Dr. Roger Verity, have been led into error in a different 

 direction, and have expanded the quite legitimate and 

 absolutely necessary trinomial nomenclature into a poly- 

 nomial one. But this is entirely due to their futile 

 attempts to arrange Zoological Nomenclature on a purely 

 phylogenetic basis. 



The result of this is, that they take the several local 

 races of a widespread insect, and, thinking the phylo- 

 genetic relationship is evidenced by closer or less close 

 resemblance, proclaim the local races most alike in appear- 

 ance to be nearest in fact. Therefore they name them as 

 subspecies of subspecies, and so on. The truth is, that in 

 many cases local races at the extreme ends of the area of 

 a species are the closest in appearance, while the most 

 different races occur in between. It is therefore obvious 

 that two races which are nearest in appearance may be 

 phylogenetically the widest apart. The only course open, 

 and the one we, i. e. the majority, adopt, is, that as the 

 original ancestral form and many other intermediate links 

 have long disappeared, to treat all local forms of one species 

 as co-equal in value, and name them all trinomial! v. 



The object of naming other lower categories is always 

 the same, viz. to facilitate their discussion ; but here again, 

 led by several English zoologists, the naming of individual 

 aberrations lias been carried too far, and in some cases 

 almost every second specimen has received a name. It 

 is. however, always of importance to name seasonal, dimor- 

 phic, and sexually polymorphic forms. 



