INTRODUCTION. IX 



fundamental rule for determining the names of both genera and 

 species ; but I suppose that this rule, like all rules, admits of 

 exceptions, and should not be pedantically applied. If a name 

 implies an error or an absurdity, it ought no doubt to be rejected. 

 I cannot, for instance, accept the name Voluta lapponica for an 

 Indian shell which has never been found in Lapland*. And 

 if a Latin word that signifies a certain well-known animal is 

 applied as a zoological name to quite another animal, I think this 

 name should be discarded t. To accept the same name for an 

 Order of animals, and for a Genus belonging to that Order — 

 for instance, Order Scorpiones, genus Scorpio, or Order Aranem, 

 genus Aranea or Araneus % — was prohibited both by Linnaeus and 

 Fabricius §. 



I am perfectly aware that the progress of natural sciences has 

 made necessary several additions to the LinnaBan rules of nomen- 

 clature, and that it would be in vain now to attempt to get certain 

 of those rules applied. But so long as the Linnean nomenclature 

 is generally adopted, and not replaced by an altogether different 

 system, I think its more essential rules should not be altered, 

 especially when the change proposed is of no practical utility. 

 It is an essential rule in the Linnean system that the scientific 

 names of plants and animals shall be in Latin, at least as to 

 their form. Now, as a great number of specific names consist 

 of the genitive of personal proper names, that genitive should, 

 when possible, be formed in analogy with the genitive of Latin 

 names or other words of a similar form. The genitive, for 

 instance, of Caligula, Liviue, and Catullus being Caligula', Livii, 



* A great many names given by modern zoologists are so absurd or bar- 

 barous (" exempla sunt odiosa " !), that I cannot understand how they are 

 tolerated ; it seems as if neither common sense nor the dignity of science can 

 claim any rights against the whims, carelessness, or ignorance of certain authors! 



t According to the "Regies de nomenclature adoptees par le Congres Zoolo- 

 gique de Moscou " (see Zoolog. Anzeiger, 1892, p. 440), " Un mot quelconque 

 adopte comme nom generique ou specifique ne doit pas etre detourne du sens 

 qu'il possede dans sa langue originelle, s'il y designe un etre organise." 



| Araneus and Aranea are not two different words, but different ways of 

 writing the same word (as, for instance, imbecillus and imbecillis) : that this 

 was the opinion also of Linnaeus is seen from his writing Araneus in the first 

 edition of the ' Systeraa Naturae,' but Aranea in the later editions of this work. 

 Clerck wrote Araneus, De Geer Aranea, etc. 



§ " Nomina generica, cum Classium et Ordinum Natural] um communia, 

 omittenda sunt."' 



