NOMINA NUDA 917 



other species takes the oldest tenable synonym applied to it, if such 

 exists, otherwise it receives a new name.* 



Manuscript Names, List Names {Nomina Nuda). Sometimes 

 authors propose names in manuscript, or in lists with the intention 

 of giving descriptions later, but the manuscripts are not published 

 or the descriptions not written. Such a noiiicn nudum has no 

 standing, unless a subsequent describer chooses to adopt it and 

 give the original proposer credit for the name. Thus U. P. James 

 in 1871 listed Ambonychia costata in his catalogue of Lower Silu- 

 rian ( Ordovicic ) Fossils of the Cincinnati group, proposing the 

 name without description. Meek in 1873 described the fossils for 

 which James had proposed the above name, which Meek adopted, 

 and credited to James. In this case the description was based on 

 the material originally named by James, so that there could be no 

 question regarding the applicability of the name. Even so, many 

 subsequent writers have credited the name costata to Meek, refus- 

 ing to recognize James' claim to priority. In general, manuscript 

 names and list names are best discarded. 



Generic A'ames as Synionyms. As a general rule, a generic name 

 can be used but once in natural history, even if the genus to be 

 named belongs to a wholly distinct phylum of the animal or plant 

 kingdom. Thus in 1835 Swainson proposed the generic name 

 Clavella for an Eocenic gastropod shell, but this name had been 

 preoccupied in 181 5 by Oken for a crustacean. The name Clavi- 

 lithes was therefore proposed by Swainson in 1840 for his shell. 

 Many authors, however, consider that preoccupation of a name 

 disqualifies it for subsequent use only if both cases are within the 

 same phylum, and in the case cited Clavella is retained by some 

 for the gastropod as well as for the crustacean. The stricter rule, 

 however, which allows one name to be used once only is the better, 

 since it avoids all ambiguity. f When species described under dififer- 

 ent generic names are found to belong to one genus, the oldest of 

 the generic names applied to them is retained, the others becoming 

 synonyms. Such synonyms ought not to be used again, but rele- 

 gated to the limbo of invalid terms. If, however, the supposed 

 generic identity of the species is sbowni to be untenable, the original 

 name or names must be restored to rank. Thus naturalists have 

 commonly regarded the generic name Cyrtulus, proposed by Hinds 



*For further extensive discussion of this question see recent numbers of 

 Science. 



t For the generic names used in zoology up to 1879, see Scudder (25). For 

 those used subsequently see the annual lists published by the Zoological Society 

 of London in the Zoological Record (complete index every ten years, 1865- 1906), 

 continued in the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature since 1907. 



