220 Prof. T. R. Jones on the Nomenclature of Polyzoa. 



to call Lophacanthus* • and to it I add the specific name of 

 Taylori, in honour of the discoverer. 



Horizon and Locality. Shale above the Low Main Seam, 

 Newsham, Northumberland. 



XXI. — On the Nomenclature of Polyzoa, Bush. 



To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, — My friend Mr. A. W. Waters, F.G.S., has 

 lately referred (in your Number for January 1880) to my use 

 of the word " Polyzoa " (in Dixon's l Geology of Sussex,' 

 new edition, pp. 200 and 311) for the group as determined by 

 Mr. Busk, F.R.S., instead of for the zooi'd as applied by 

 Thompson. I am sorry that I did not write as accurately 

 and clearly as might have been. Instead of " Polyzoa, 

 Thompson," I should have written " POLYZOA, Busk ;" and 

 I ought not to have stated that " the Polyzoa were first de- 

 fined by Dr. J. V. Thompson," &c, but that, following up 

 Thompson's researches, Mr. Busk completed the determination 

 of the group. In my own words, I repeat that " group-names 

 are indications of advancing scientific knowledge, and not to 

 use the best is to keep science back." Further, " the published 

 name of a species is (or ought to be) not only the established 

 appellation of a distinct form in nature, but also the registered 

 evidence of the successful labour and acumen of its discoverer 

 and describer," whilst the complete mastery of such natural 

 groups as genera &c. comes with time. 



On another point, — if your readers please to refer back to 

 the Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. vii. no. 44, June 1841, 

 pp. 301 et seq., they will find a transcript of Ehrenberg's 

 finished classification from the Trans. Berlin Acad, for 1838, 

 when his "Bryozoa" comprised four orders, the first of 

 which consists of the " Polythalamia ;" and all of these, except 

 Lunulites, Cupularia, and Flustrella, are FORAMINIFERA. 

 Consequently Mr. Waters has to take this matter into his 

 further consideration. For my part I am quite willing to 

 accept Mr. Busk's determination of the group (see Ann. & 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 2, vol. x. p. 352, 1852 ; Cat. Polyzoa 

 Brit. Mus. ; and Monogr. Pal. Soc, Polyzoa of the Crag, &c.) 

 as the latest and the best ; and I shall not trouble you with 

 any further correspondence on the subject. 



Your obedient Servant, 



Camberley, Surrey, T. RUPERT JONES. 



Feb. 10. 1880. 



* \6(pos = 'd ridge. 



